In the mystery surrounding one of the sea's most elusive creatures, this body is more of a clue than a victim.
One of the largest giant squid ever found washed up on a beach in southern Australia yesterday, offering potentially crucial insights into the animal's habits and habitat, scientists said.
The squid was discovered on a beach late at night on the western coast of Tasmania (see map of Australia).
Biologists who inspected the squid said it weighed some 550 pounds (250 kilograms) and stretched 26 feet (8 meters) from head to tentacle—about as long as a school bus.
But the beast might have been even longer when it was alive, because the tentacles appeared to be badly damaged.
"It's a whopper," Genefor Walker-Smith, curator at the Tasmanian Museum, told the Reuters news service.
Another giant squid bearing similar injuries washed up on a Tasmanian beach in 2002. Scientists at the time suspected that the wounds were the result of a raucous sexual encounter, suggesting that giant squid may breed nearby.
There was no word on the cause of death of the newfound squid, but scientists have collected tissue samples to conduct DNA and other tests. The results could shed new light on an animal that is rarely seen outside the darkness of the deep.
A live giant squid was photographed for the first time in 2004, and another was captured and filmed a year later, both off the coast of Japan.
译文:
"巨型"乌贼被冲上澳大利亚海岸
这次发现的大乌贼尸体与其说是牺牲者还不如说是探索神秘的自然环境中很多不知名的海底生物的一个线索。
昨天深夜在澳大利亚南部的塔斯酶尼亚的西海岸的沙滩上，发现了一只被冲上岸的庞大乌贼。科学家们说,这对于探索动物的生活习性和生活环境提供了可能性。生物学家们估量那乌贼重达约550磅(250公斤)，体长大概26英尺(8米)，从头部到触须的长度就跟一辆校车差不多。估计活着的时候可能更长，因为现在它的触须已经损毁了.“这是一个庞然大物”詹妮佛 沃克 史密斯，塔斯酶尼亚博物馆的馆长对路透社说道。在2002年发现的另一只乌贼也有类似的伤口，当时科学家们猜测那伤口可能是由于两性间的撕杀造成的，并暗示了这周围可能存在着乌贼繁殖点。不过新发现乌贼的死因仍无一个确切的说法，科学家们已经收集到一些完整的DNA的样本并进行其他研究。一种对动物新的观点就出现了:有些动物很少出现在深海以外的地方.第一次拍摄到活的乌贼是在2004年，在此之后的一年又捕获了另一只巨型乌贼并制成影片.而这两次发现都在日本海岸。