Moroteuthopsis longimana explained

Moroteuthopsis longimana, also known as the giant warty squid or longarm octopus squid,[1] is a large species of hooked squid. It attains a mantle length of at least 85 cm and probably over 1.15 m. The largest complete specimen of this species, measuring 2.3 m in total length, was found in Antarctica in 2000.[2]

Description

M. longimana is a large squid, the adults can grow to a mantle length of 740 mm, which is characterised by the presence of 33 hooks and marginal suckers throughout the tentacular club during subadult years. The gladius of this species is not visible beneath the skin in the dorsal midline. M. longimana possesses three nuchal folds.[3]

Type material

The type material of this species, consisting of three specimens caught at the surface and a depth of 50 m, was collected just north of the South Orkney Islands[4] and is deposited at the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University.[5]

Distribution

M. longimana occurs in epipelagic and mesopelagic waters of the Southern Ocean. Its range may be circumpolar with an Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic distribution,[6] stretching as far north as South Georgia and the Tasman Sea.[7] [8]

Ecology

This squid is eaten by several predators in the Southern Ocean, mainly sharks (sleeper sharks and porbeagles, accounting for 21% and 19% of the cephalopod biomass consumed by each shark, respectively[9]), albatrosses, sperm whales and penguins.

Several prey have been identified for the diet of M. longimana, with krill as the main source of food. However, indirect methods have pointed for other high trophic level prey as other crustaceans and lanternfish.[6] [10]

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. O'Shea, S. 2005. Kondakovia longimana. In: Giant Squid and Colossal Squid Fact Sheet. The Octopus News Magazine Online.
  2. News: Carrington, D. . Big squid breaks record . BBC News . 3 July 2000.
  3. Vecchione, M., R.E. Young & K. Tsuchiya 2003. Kondakovia longimana Filippova, 1972. Tree of Life web project.
  4. Filippova . J. A. . New data on the squids (Cephalopoda: Oegopsida) from the Scotia Sea (Antarctic) . Malacologia . 1972 . 11 . 391–406 .
  5. http://www.mnh.si.edu/cephs/newclass.pdf Current Classification of Recent Cephalopoda
  6. Guerreiro . Miguel . Phillips . Richard A. . Cherel . Yves . Ceia . Filipe R. . Alvito . Pedro . Rosa . Rui . Xavier . José C. . Habitat and trophic ecology of Southern Ocean cephalopods from stable isotope analyses . Marine Ecology Progress Series . 2015 . 530 . 119–134 . 10.3354/meps11266 . free.
  7. Xavier . J. C. . Rodhouse . P. G. . Trathan . P. N. . Wood . A. G. . A Geographical Information System (GIS) Atlas of cephalopod distribution in the Southern Ocean . Antarctic Science . 1999 . 11 . 1 . 61–62 . 10.1017/S0954102099000097. 140591721 .
  8. Kubodera . T. . U. . Piatkowski . T. . Okutani . M.R. . Clarke . 1998 . Taxonomy and zoogeography of the family Onychoteuthidae (Cephalopoda: Oegopsida) . Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology . 586 . 277–291 .
  9. Cherel . Yves . Duhamel . Guy . Antarctic jaws: cephalopod prey of sharks in Kerguelen waters . Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers . 2004 . 51 . 1 . 17–31 . 10.1016/j.dsr.2003.09.009.
  10. Book: Nemoto . T. . Okiyama . M. . Iwasaki . N. . Kikuchi . T. . Squid as predators on krill (Euphausia superba) and prey for sperm whales in the Southern Ocean . Antarctic Ocean and Resources Variability . Sahrhage, D. . Springer . Berlin, Heidelberg . 1988 . 292–296 . 10.1007/978-3-642-73724-4_25. 978-3-642-73726-8 .

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