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Vampire Squid And The Evolution Of Cephalopod Sex

Everyone loves vampire squid, right? Their monstrous name belies their gentle nature as graceful...

Learning Science From Fiction: A Review Of Ryan Lockwood’s “Below”

In last month’s review of Preparing the Ghost, I mentioned that you can actually learn facts...

Usurped By Legend: A Review Of Matthew Gavin Frank’s ‘Preparing The Ghost’

When you read something in a book, do you believe it? You might say, “Of course not if it’s...

Squid Lady Parts

This Bobtail squid was imaged by the Deep Discover ROV in Atlantis Canyon, is less than one foot...

Danna Staaf

Cephalopods have been rocking my world since I was in grade school. I pursued them through a BA in marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, followed by a PhD dissertation at... Read More »

How To Take Your Squid Home

Sep 15 2011 | comment(s)

I must have missed that section in the What to Expect books on how to react when your child comes home from school with a Ziploc bag filled with squid parts in his backpack.

Thus begins an entertaining account by Beth Braccio in the Chicago Parent about all the exciting things her son has brought home from school. To her credit, she didn't immediately make him throw the bag of squid away:

Math Links and Creepy Art

Sep 13 2011 | comment(s)

Squid news has been kind of slow lately, but I hate leaving this blog empty! (The frequency with which it is meant to be updated is, after all, given away in the title.)

So here are a couple of tidbits. First, a creepy illustration by Kevin Evans:

Anthropoteuthis

Sep 11 2011 | comment(s)

Here's a brilliant username I wish I'd thought of: Anthropoteuthis. The Spanish marine biology student who deserves credit spells it Antropoteuthis, since the "th" phoneme is foreign to Spanish.

He recently posted some representaciones metafóricas del pseudónimo Antropoteuthis, including this delightful image:

Will Shark Decline Cause Squid Swarms?

Sep 10 2011 | comment(s)

An interesting fellow is doing an interesting thing. Scott Cassell aims to "raise awareness around the detrimental state of the ocean along the Southern California coastline" with a specific focus on the decline of sharks. Says Cassell,

If we lose an apex predator from the food chain it causes other species to then have population explosions. For example, Sharks and Tuna are the natural predators of the Humboldt squid. If you kill off all the sharks, the squid population (each female can potentially have 20 million "babies") will begin to overpower the part of the food chain below them. They will eat anything and everything.

Squid Gear On Sale!

Sep 08 2011 | comment(s)

SquidFire is having an end-of-summer sale: $5 off all their adult t-shirts. (I think it still applies even if you live in the southern hemisphere.) While not all of their gear features cephalopods, they do have many tentacular designs.

For direct links to the ones I like best, check out my Cephalopod Gear page. This list of the internet's best cephalopod-related merchandise largely owes its existence to the diligence of my friends, who send me links to every teuthoid t-shirt they see. So, if I'm missing something, drop me a line!

Squid Keep 'Em Guessing Around The World

Sep 07 2011 | comment(s)

I know I keep talking about the incredible unpredictability of squids, but it's an endlessly fascinating topic! Every time you think you've got them figured out, they surprise you--and I'd say that goes for pretty much all squid species.

Of course, I'm particularly familiar with the Humboldt squid's propensity for perplexity. For a while, they were so abundant off California that sport fishermen were reeling them in as fast as they could throw jigs in the water. Now, the squid have disappeared.