Latest news with #NaturalHistoryMuseumofLondon
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Colossal squid caught on video for first time, seen swimming nearly 2,000 feet below ocean's surface
The colossal squid, the heaviest invertebrate in the world, was captured on video swimming in the deep sea for the first time since it was identified a century ago. The footage was filmed on March 9 by an international team of scientists and crew on an expedition near the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, Schmidt Ocean Institute said in a news release. The squid, scientifically named Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, was a juvenile at nearly one foot long, according to the release. It was at a depth of 1,968 feet when scientists and crew on board the institute's research vessel Falkor captured footage of it with a remotely operated vehicle called SuBastian. "It's exciting to see the first in situ footage of a juvenile colossal and humbling to think that they have no idea that humans exist," said Kat Bolstad of the Auckland University of Technology. Bolstad was one of the scientific experts who assisted with verifying the video. "For 100 years, we have mainly encountered them as prey remains in whale and seabird stomachs and as predators of harvested toothfish," she said. The squid was formally identified and named in 1925, but until now, no one has been able to capture it alive on camera. It's estimated that the squid can grow up to 23 feet in length and weigh as much as 1,100 pounds, the institute said. Little is known about the squid's life cycle, but it loses its transparent body as it becomes an adult. The colossal squid is not to be confused with a giant squid, according to the Natural History Museum of London. Both are massive cephalopods, but belong to different families of squid. The giant squid has much longer tentacles with a more narrow body, whereas the colossal squid has a much larger body with shorter tentacles. Bolstad and Aaron Evans, an independent expert on the glass squid family who also helped verify the video, both said that the colossal squid has distinguishing characteristics, including hooks on the middle of their eight arms. To date, the institute's ROV SuBastian has captured the first confirmed footage of at least four squid species in the wild, including the Promachoteuthis last year and the ram's horn squid in 2020. This article was originally published on
NBC News
16-04-2025
- Science
- NBC News
Colossal squid caught on video for first time, seen swimming nearly 2,000 feet below ocean's surface
The colossal squid, the heaviest invertebrate in the world, was captured on video swimming in the deep sea for the first time since it was identified a century ago. The footage was filmed on March 9 by an international team of scientists and crew on an expedition near the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, Schmidt Ocean Institute said in a news release. The squid, scientifically named Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, was a juvenile at nearly one foot long, according to the release. It was at a depth of 1,968 feet when scientists and crew on board the institute's research vessel Falkor captured footage of it with a remotely operated vehicle called SuBastian. "It's exciting to see the first in situ footage of a juvenile colossal and humbling to think that they have no idea that humans exist," said Kat Bolstad of the Auckland University of Technology. Bolstad was one of the scientific experts who assisted with verifying the video. "For 100 years, we have mainly encountered them as prey remains in whale and seabird stomachs and as predators of harvested toothfish," she said. The squid was formally identified and named in 1925, but until now, no one has been able to capture it alive on camera. It's estimated that the squid can grow up to 23 feet in length and weigh as much as 1,100 pounds, the institute said. Little is known about the squid's life cycle, but it loses its transparent body as it becomes an adult. The colossal squid is not to be confused with a giant squid, according to the Natural History Museum of London. Both are massive cephalopods, but belong to different families of squid. The giant squid has much longer tentacles with a more narrow body, whereas the colossal squid has a much larger body with shorter tentacles. Bolstad and Aaron Evans, an independent expert on the glass squid family who also helped verify the video, both said that the colossal squid has distinguishing characteristics, including hooks on the middle of their eight arms. To date, the institute's ROV SuBastian has captured the first confirmed footage of at least four squid species in the wild, including the Promachoteuthis last year and the ram's horn squid in 2020.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA says asteroid sample contains building blocks of life
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — NASA scientists released their findings on Wednesday after the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft crashed into the asteroid Bennu and brought samples back to Earth. Scientists said they didn't find evidence of life on Bennu, but they did find evidence of the building blocks of life. 'Finding the ingredients to life is always very interesting,' said Jason Dworkin, Senior Scientist at NASA. Dworkin co-authored a paper outlining the chemical compounds scientists found in the Bennu samples. They included 14 of the 20 amino acids life on Earth uses to make proteins and the compounds found in DNA and RNA. 'It's like the alphabet, that goes into words. But we didn't find the words themselves let alone paragraphs,' Dworkin said. 'We found individual letters and all the letters that are used in DNA and RNA.' Natural History Museum of London researcher Sara Russell also analyzed minerals found in the Bennu samples. They included salts that form when water evaporates. 'All of these ingredients would have impacted the early Earth in the form of Asteroids,' Russell said. Russell emphasized, those wouldn't have been found on meteorites on Earth. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
