# Vampire Squid from Hell! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 25, 2010, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-squid-from-hell/554981 "2010-09-25T07:00:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-squid-from-hell/554981/1 "2010-09-25T07:00:24Z")
[Get a load of _this_ sucker.](http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/09/friday_cephalopod_to_haunt_you.php) Click the image to see a larger version. Vampy here (_Vampyroteuthis infernalis_, which means “Vampire squid from Hell” in Latin) is a relict, the last surviving member of the order _Vampyroteuthis_. It lives in the deep ocean, and, like many deep sea species, is ugly enough to scare the stupid out of you. Also like many deep-sea predators, it has light-producing cells it can use to stun and confuse prey. [This is what _that_ kind of sparkling looks like.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cf/Vampyroteuthis2.jpg) [It was originally thought to be an octopus. It was _always_ thought to be creepy:](http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/vampy.php) > [@](#): > > William Beebe (1926) described _V. infernalis_ as “a very small but terrible octopus, black as night with ivory white jaws and blood red eyes”. Like all good vampires, it’s a blue-blood: It uses hemocyanin instead of the hemoglobin we use, making its blood more efficient at binding oxygen. This allows it to survive low oxygen conditions that would kill most cephalopods. It also has a heck of an evasion strategy: > [@](#): > > Studies using remotely operated vehicles at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have revealed remarkable predator avoidance displays. Light organs on the tip of each arm and at the base of each fin begin to glow and pulse and the arms begin to writhe. It becomes very difficult to tell one end of the vampire squid from the other. **Then, _V. infernalis_ ejects a mucus containing thousands of “glowing spheres of blue bioluminescent light”** (Hunt, 1996). When the light show ends, it is difficult to tell if the black vampire squid has flown away in the dark, and if so, in which direction, or if it has merely faded into the lightless waters around it. My god, it vomits stars! I’d love to see anyone from _Twilight_ do that. [This page goes into a lot more detail about its evolutionary history](http://www.tonmo.com/science/public/vampyroteuthis.php), emphasizing the fact it’s just plain _freaky_: > [@](#): > > [T]he vampire squid actually has the largest eye of any animal relative to body size. A fully grown female can have an eye that is an inch across, comparable to a fully grown dog. This is in an animal that’s a foot long, maximum, counting the arms, emphasizing the fact it lives in the dark places in our world we’re just barely able to explore, and we know practically nothing about. For all we know, there could be other kinds of vampire squids out there, just waiting for us to go deep enough long enough to find them. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-squid-from-hell/554981/2 "2010-09-25T08:53:10Z")
Holy shit, that is one scary [cthulan](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3PvvT_Ktx8) critter :eek: ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-squid-from-hell/554981/3 "2010-09-25T09:11:59Z")
It’s probably just my twisted mind, but doesn’t it have the kind of mouth you’d expect to find on a plastic blow-up doll? “Hey there Mr. Marine Biologist. Lookin’ for a date?” ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-squid-from-hell/554981/4 "2010-09-25T17:49:14Z")
> [@dzero](#): > > It’s probably just my twisted mind, but doesn’t it have the kind of mouth you’d expect to find on a plastic blow-up doll? > > “Hey there Mr. Marine Biologist. Lookin’ for a date?” It does, which makes that one of the wrongest things I’ve ever read on this message board. You’re precisely the kind of deranged pervert I look for in a community. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vampire-squid-from-hell/554981/5 "2010-09-25T19:20:30Z")
[quote=“Derleth, post:4, topic:554981”] > [@dzero](#): > > You’re precisely the kind of deranged pervert I look for in a community. One of us! One of us! Gooba gobba one of us!