The blog-o-sphere is reeling today with supposed sightings of the Loch Ness Monster on Google Earth! Check it out – we wonder whether perhaps Nessie and our Colossal squid are related?
Image of Google Earth care of Geekologie.com
Weird co-incidence number 2 is that during the squid defrost, some of the scientists nick-named our squid ‘Messie’ - after the scientific name Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni.
For those of you whose Latin pronunciation is not great, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni is pronouced something like ‘Mess-on-a-ca-tooth-this’.
Te Papa’s Colossal Squid website
30 August 2009 at 2:00 pm
Hamilton’s Middle-Claw Squid? YAY!
31 August 2009 at 9:20 am
Hah! You’re right – Middle-Claw Squid is indeed what Mesonychoteuthis means.
Bruce Marshall, our mollusc curator says there is also a spcies called onychoteuthis equimanus – meaning clawed squid with hands of the same size.
Not sure why Messie got the middle claw added – it certainly has hooks – the mysteries of scientific naming!
Check out the post on tentacles
http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2008/07/17/hooks-suckers/