Ecology & Zoology

On this, the second of the International Cephalopod Appreciation Days, we turn our attention to the pearly nautilus, and "other lesser-known extant and extinct cephalopods." My favorite is the…

Today begins the Third Annual International Cephalopod Awareness Days! Naturally, since it is the eighth of the month, we are honoring octopods today. This provides the perfect opening for my…

Chiroteuthids (ky-ro-tooth-ids) are crazy weird squid; their most notable feature is having two sets of fins on the "tail end" of their mantles as paralarvae. To me, this is nearly as bizarre as…

I get some bizarre hits from my google squid alert, like this opinion piece discussing the "Democratic Squid." Squid-A-Day has nothing to say about Chicago, the Olympics, or Obama's foreign policy,…

My personal favorite sepiolid is the striped pyjama squid. It burrow in the sand! It secretes mucus! And it is spelled in the British way! Seriously, nothing should be allowed to be that cute: As a…

A couple of years ago, during one of these flurries of Humboldt squid activity in the Pacific Northwest, people were reporting headless squid bodies on the beach. It turned out that at least one and…

A biologist friend of mine recently heard from a journalist who was fact-checking a squid article. (Go, conscientious journalism!) The article included the line "the Humboldt squid is five feet long…

. . . Wait! Stop the presses! They're not enormous, they're just somewhat large. They don't stab their prey, they just chew and swallow. Maybe that sounds nitpicky--big is big and sharp is sharp,…

I was delighted to receive a message yesterday from a teacher on the Oregon coast who had seized the opportunity to dissect a Humboldt squid with her students. First--how cool is that? Good teaching…

Thank you, Slate, for taking this opportunity to remind us of the dangers of angering the giant squid: The giant squid hates everything: It hates Kirk Douglas, it hates the crew of the Pequod, and it…