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First Photos Taken of a Live Giant Squid
News story originally written on October 12, 2005

For the first time ever a living giant squid has been photographed! Japanese scientists found and photographed the squid at about 3000 feet (900 meters) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

You can tell from the name that this type of squid is very large, up to 60 feet long. The one found by this research team was 25 feet long. They have very large eyeballs. Each eyeball is larger than a person's head, about 18 inches across.

Giant squid live by themselves in the deep ocean, typically far away from land. They are relatives of smaller squid and octopus. All squid, even the small ones, hunt to find food, but only giant squid can hunt animals as large as whales!

The research team took more than 500 pictures of the squid. Take a look at some of them by clicking here.

Last modified October 12, 2005 by Lisa Gardiner.

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