![]() ![]() This is another adaptation to life in the slow lane. This gelatinous body composition allows them to have neutral buoyancy, meaning they do not need to expend any energy to stay at their chosen depth in the ocean. The tissue of their body is gelatinous, more like that of a jellyfish than a cephalopod. Unfortunately his paper did not look at vampire squids as part of its survey, but it did include the deep water octopus Japatella diaphana and it is likely these organs serve a similar function in all the species that have them.Īnother characteristic that separates vampire squid the cuttlefish, octopuses and true squid, is that vampire squid do not have tough muscular bodies, and they do not move quickly. Nobody is really sure what nuchal organs do for an animal, however in a paper published 2000 looking at the function and occurrence of the nuchal organ in cephalopods in general Mathew Parry asserted that they most definitely have some photoreceptive function. Vampire squids possess a pair of nuchal organs, sometimes seen as a paler oval mark half way between the eye and the fin, and higher on the torso than the eye, more at the level of the fin. Furthermore they have also lost the ink sac that allows other coleoids to produce ink (this is likely an evolutionary adaptation to living in the lightless depths of the ocean). Vampire squid chromatophores lack the musculature (and presumably the enervating nerves) that allow other coleoid to open and close their chromatophores. Full grown females are larger than males – a form of sexual dimorphism. They also possess chromatophores, but unlike their relatives these are only in two colours, black and brown, and they are inactive. Like their relatives vampire squid have a gladius (sometimes called a pen), in vampire quids this is somewhat broader than in true squid. They have eight arm that have a web of skin stretched between them. They are usually a dark red and eyes that are sometimes seen as blue. Vampire squids are medium sized cephalopods that live in deep water. They are commonly, but not exclusively found in “Oxygen Minimum Zones” (see below).Their bodies are not muscular like squids and octopuses, but instead have a squishy body mass, like jellyfish.For coleoid cephalopods they are long lived up to or beyond 10 years.They move fairly slowly and have a low-energy life style.Unlike most coleoid cephalopods they are semelparous (produce more than one batch of young).They feed on detritus commonly called ‘marine snow’ (see more below).Where they live is very cold between 3° and 5° degrees C.They live in the deep oceans (500 to 3,300 meters down) normally at depths between 1,000 and 2,500 meters.They have very large eyes, which are often blue.As adults they have two fins (as juveniles they have four as they grow (see below).They have a full skirt, (the webbing between their arms).They have 8 arms and two long retractile velar filaments.In shape they are a rounded ovoid, a bit like an American Football ball.In size they are about 12 cms to 28 cms in body length.The are more closely related to octopuses than to squids, but actually they are themselves – unique. ![]()
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