mollusk of the week!

woohoo, it's time for mollusk of the week! this week's mollusk is a solitary swimmer, and one of my all-time favorites...

this week's mollusk is: vampyroteuthis infernalis (a.k.a the vampire squid)!

despite being referred to as a squid, this rare, deep-sea cephalopod is actually not a squid at all, but the only surviving member of its order, vampyromorphida. and while its name begets bloodsucking and horror, this little guy grows only to about 30cm (about a foot) in length, and feeds off of organic detritus, rendering this sweet little guy pretty much harmless. they can range in color from jet black to pale red, and have eight arms connected by a web of skin concealing rows of fleshy spines alternating with suckers along the underside of its cloak. 

side-note: in several sources i looked through, they often referred to the animal as football sized, which kept making me laugh. it reminded me of those 'americans will use anything but the metric system' memes lol.

they reside in the lightless depths of the ocean where oxygen levels are too low to support aerobic metabolism, making this the only known cephalopod capable of surviving its entire life cycle in what is known as the OMZ (oxygen minimum zone). when threatened, they assume what is referred to as the 'pumpkin' or 'pineapple' posture, turning its cloak inside out and concealing its gelatinous body inside in order to make itself appear bigger and reveal its spines. isn't that adorable? the pumpkin posture is such a silly way of referring to it. 

another method of defense they employ (though rarely, given the metabolic cost) is to eject a cloud of sticky bioluminescent mucus in order to stun its predator and let it make its escape. the mucus then clings to the vampire squid's predator, illuminating it and thus making it more visible to secondary predators. basically the deep sea equivalent of shooting someone with glow-in-the-dark paintballs and then running away into the darkness... very cool.

in these images you can see its spines (or cirri, as they are officially called) and the dark underside of its cloak. in the second one you can also see its white beak! it's so otherworldly that it feels strange to say we're both earthlings... 

i can't lie, i love these guys mostly because i think they're so, so precious. the big fins on the side of their heads look like big, floppy ears, and their oversized, translucent eyes only add to that creepy/cute factor. if only they were capable of surviving happily in captivity, but alas the longest they've ever lived in an aquarium is two months, though its hypothesized they could live to about eight years!! that's a long time compared to its closest relatives, the octopoda, the longest living of which are graneledone boreopacifica at a comparatively low 4.5+ years, and enteroctopus dofleini (giant pacific octopus) at 3-5 years. 

there's a few videos of them in motion (though they don't move much...), mostly by mbari, the monterey bay aquarium research institute - which is also where i sourced most of these pictures. they're worth checking out if you're curious! 

to end off on a high note, here's a few more photos that showcase the beauty of this mysterious creature.

hint for next week's mollusk: we've covered gastropoda, and now cephalopoda - it's time for bivalvia to shine, and we're going big...