Vampire squid
Vampyroteuthis infernalis
— Where the name comes from
Vampyroteuthis infernalis means “vampire squid from hell”, and there is no way of making it less theatrical. Carl Chun named it in 1903 looking at a black specimen, the web between its arms spread like a cloak and its eyes red: it looked like a vampire in miniature. It is a name that has condemned the animal to a false reputation, because it sucks nothing and hunts nobody.
— Facts
- Group
- Molluscs · Mollusca
- Order
- Vampire squid
- Habitat
- The oxygen minimum zone, between 600 and 1,200 metres
- Range
- All temperate and tropical oceans
- Size
- Up to 30 cm
- Diet
- Marine snow: detritus, remains and droppings sinking from above
- Lifespan
- 8 years or more
— Characteristics
- 01
It is neither octopus nor squid: it is the sole survivor of an order of its own.
- 02
It breathes in water with oxygen at 3% of saturation.
- 03
It defends itself by pulling its mantle over its head, like a closed umbrella.
— What sets it apart
It eats the dust that falls. For a century it was believed a predator, and instead it unfurls two extremely fine filaments eight times its body length and uses them as passive lines to gather marine snow — remains of plankton, shells, droppings drifting slowly down from the surface — kneading it with mucus into small parcels. It is the only known cephalopod that hunts nothing living. It inhabits the oxygen minimum zone, a band where almost no active animal survives, and manages it with a very low metabolism, blood extraordinarily avid for oxygen, and a gelatinous body with almost no muscle.
