Giant squid or giant squids ?

Deep-Sea News -

Tonight when you go to bed consider that 20 different giant squids are lurking about. Well maybe not your bed. But if your bed was in the deep ocean then there could be 20 different giant squid mucking around.

In 1857, Japetus Steenstrup a Danish biologist scientifically named several squids and octopods in the shortly titled Hectoctyldannelsen hos Octopodslaegterne Argonauta og Tremoctopus, oplyst ved Iagttagelse af lignende Dannelser hos Blacksprutterne i Almindelighed. Among those species Steenstrup named was the Giant Squid or Architeuthis dux.

The scientific name comes from the Latin archi- or Greek arkhi- meaning chief or most important, the Greek word teuthis for squid; and the Latin dux meaning leader. So literally the name Architeuthis dux translates to “most important squid leader”. That is scientifically an awesome name.

Since 1857, everyone wanted to name a new giant squid species. And who wouldn’t because they are awesome? Thus to date 20 species of giant squid are named. But quite frankly not everyone buys into this gaggle of giant squid. Nesis in the 1980’s suggested that only three valid species exist, Architeuthis dux in the North Atlantic Ocean, Architeuthis martensi in the North Pacific, and Arciteuthis sanctipauli in the Southern Ocean. Of course no one knows for sure.

The key would be in the genes and giant squid expert, Steve O’Shea, commented on a thread that his lab’s genetic research indicated that “In short, no [genetic] difference between any of the regions (no evidence for recognizing more than one species).” So one Giant Squid distributed across the entire globe equals awesome.

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