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squid

The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea | 2006 | Copyright

squid, predatory cephalopod molluscs of the order Teuthoidea. The 298 species of squid range in size from 2 centimetres (1 in.) to 20 metres (65 ft) in the giant squid (Architeuthis dux). The fast-swimming species have some of the highest metabolic rates of all animals. The body is usually cigar shaped with two lateral fins. The head has well-developed eyes and around the mouth with its parrot-beak-like jaws is a ring of eight arms lined with suckers, and two others that are highly extensible tentacles with suckers only on their ends. These extensible arms are shot out to seize the prey. Most squid swim backwards, using jets of water squirted from the siphon just beneath the head. The powerhouse for the jets is the mantle cavity on the underside of the body, which is lined with powerful muscles. The body fins are used for steering, but in some species they undulate to provide the power for normal swimming.

Squid are a favoured food of sperm whales, and titanic struggles have been witnessed between them and giant squid. The giant squid may have given rise to the Norwegian myth of a many-armed sea monster, the kraken. In 2003 a ‘colossal squid’ (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) was picked up by fishermen near the surface in Antarctic waters. It was about two-thirds of its potential full size but even so its mantle measured 2.5 metres (8 ft), and when stretched out its arms and tentacles measured 5–6 metres (16–19 ft), so potentially this species could be even larger than the giant squid. It has the largest eyes of any animal and is reported to be extremely aggressive, chasing large prey such as the Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides), which it grasps with the swivelling hooks on the insides of its tentacles, and rips apart with its parrot-like beak. Previously only six specimens had been found, five of which came from the stomachs of sperm whales. It has been estimated that this species makes up nearly 80% by weight of a bull sperm whale's diet in the Southern Ocean.

There are some remarkable deep-sea species. The cock-eyed squid (Histioteuthis) has one big eye and one small eye, and its underside is studded with light organs. Cranchid squid (Cranchia spp.) are jelly-like and concentrate ammonia in their blood making them neutrally buoyant, so they do not have to swim constantly.

There are some large fisheries for squid, some of which are sold for human consumption, but many are used as bait for long-lining. In Monterey Bay off California there is an annual event when millions of market squid (Loligo opalescens) gather in huge shoals to spawn and then die. This species, like many squid, live for only a year.

Bibliography

Hunt, J. , Octopus and Squid (1997).


www.cephbase.utmb.edu/

M. V. Angel
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squid

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | Copyright

squid carnivorous marine cephalopod mollusk. The squid is one of the most highly developed invertebrates, well adapted to its active, predatory life. The characteristic molluscan shell is reduced to a horny plate shaped like a quill pen and buried under the mantle.

The mantle, the chief swimming organ of the animal, is modified into lengthwise fins along the posterior end of the body and projects forward like a collar around the head. As the mantle relaxes and contracts, the squid swims forward, upward, and downward. Water is expelled in jets from the muscular funnel located just below the head, propelling the squid backward in abrupt jetlike motions. Two of the ten sucker-bearing arms (used to steer in swimming) are tentacles that can seize prey, which is then cut into pieces by the animal's strong beaklike jaws.

The squid breathes through gills, and may emit a cloud of inky material from its ink sac when in danger. The circulatory and nervous systems are highly developed. The eye of the squid is remarkably similar to that of humans—an example of convergent evolution, as there is no common ancestor. Squids are also distinguished by internal cartilaginous supports. Some deep-sea forms have luminescent organs.

The common squid is found from Maine to the Carolinas, often moving in shoals. In the United States tons of squid are used for fish bait, particularly by the cod fisheries in New England. Squid is a favorite food in East Asia and in the Mediterranean area. Species range in size from about 2 in. (5 cm) to the proportions of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the colossal squid, which is the largest of all invertebrates and may attain a mantle length of 13 ft (4 m) and total length of 33–46 ft (10–14 m), and the giant squid, Architeuthis dux, which has a mantle length of 7.4 ft (2.25 m) and is known to reach 43 ft (13 m) in total length.

Squids are classified in the phylum Mollusca , class Cephalopoda, order Teuthoidea.

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squid

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

squid / skwid/ • n. (pl. same or squids ) an elongated, fast-swimming cephalopod mollusk with ten arms (technically, eight arms and two long tentacles), typically able to change color. • Order Teuthoidea and Vampyromorpha, class Cephalopoda, in particular the common genus Loligo. See also giant squid. ∎  this mollusk used as food. ∎  an artificial bait for fish imitating a squid in form. ∎ military slang a sailor. • v. (squid·ded, squid·ding) [intr.] fish using squid as bait.

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squid

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Copyright

squid Any of numerous species of marine cephalopod molluscs that have a cylindrical body with an internal horny plate (the pen) that serves as a skeleton. It has eight short, suckered tentacles surrounding the mouth, in addition to which there are two longer, arm-like tentacles that can be shot out to seize moving prey. Several species of giant squid (genus Architeuthis) may reach 20m (65ft) in length. Class Cephalopoda; order Teuthoidea.
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SQUID

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

SQUID / skwid/ • n. Physics a device used in particular in sensitive magnetometers, which consists of a superconducting ring containing one or more Josephson junctions. A change by one flux quantum in the ring's magnetic flux linkage produces a sharp change in its impedance.

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squid

A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition | 2005 | | Copyright

squid (calamar) Marine cephalopod with elongated body and eight arms, Loligo and Illex spp.
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DAVID A. BENDER. "squid." A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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squid

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | | Copyright

squid XVII. of unkn. orig
.
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T. F. HOAD. "squid." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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squid

Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes | 2007 | Copyright

squid •amid, backslid, bid, did, forbid, grid, hid, id, kid, Kidd, lid, Madrid, mid, outbid, outdid, quid, rid, skid, slid, squid, underbid, yid •scarabaeid • Aeneid • nereid •spermatozoid •Clwyd, Druid, fluid •noctuid • rabid • carabid • ibid •morbid • turbid • wretched

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squid

The Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations | 1998 | | Copyright

squid (or SQUID) (skwɪd) Electronics superconducting quantum interference device
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FRAN ALEXANDER , PETER BLAIR , JOHN DAINTITH , ALICE GRANDISON , VALERIE ILLINGWORTH , ELIZABETH MARTIN , ANNE STIBBS , JUDY PEARSALL , and SARA TULLOCH. "squid." The Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

FRAN ALEXANDER , PETER BLAIR , JOHN DAINTITH , ALICE GRANDISON , VALERIE ILLINGWORTH , ELIZABETH MARTIN , ANNE STIBBS , JUDY PEARSALL , and SARA TULLOCH. "squid." The Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O25-squid.html

FRAN ALEXANDER , PETER BLAIR , JOHN DAINTITH , ALICE GRANDISON , VALERIE ILLINGWORTH , ELIZABETH MARTIN , ANNE STIBBS , JUDY PEARSALL , and SARA TULLOCH. "squid." The Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations. 1998. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O25-squid.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Squid: a shortage of this increasingly popular mollusk may be sending prices...
Magazine article from: Seafood Business; 1/1/2003
Squid: steady supplies from around the world make this mollusk a perennial...
Magazine article from: Seafood Business; 9/1/2002
SQUIDS IN! Curious catch: But squid can also be very tasty.
Newspaper article from: Daily Mail (London); 5/24/2008

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squid. Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

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