Giant Squid at Smithsonian

Squid on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

Squids in Hollywood

Few movies involving squid are in existence. You may have seen the Kraken in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and briefly in Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, where it is seen dead, washed up on the shore of an uncharted island. The other movies involving squid are Kraken:Tentacles of the Deep, Peter Benchley's Beast, and Eye of the Beast. All of these movies are Sci-Fi originals. While these are obviously movies that have been made with a low budget they still have that creature feature appeal for those who love squids.

The Kraken

Sailors who came back from months on a sailing ship told of a huge squid-like beast called the Kraken. The Kraken is a mythical beast said to be a 100 feet long and has hypnotic eyes that draw you closer and closer until your close enough for it to ensnare you in its watery grip. With tentacles with suction cups able to suck your face clean off, the Kraken could easily pull down a cargo ship. The legend of the Kraken most likely originated from a giant squid carcass washing up on a beach somewhere, scaring a local half to death. This in turn would cause stories to spring up everywhere about a tentacle grabbing somebody out of a boat or children who went swimming and were never seen again. The kraken isn't real but the giant squid is.

Architeuthis dux, A.K.A., the giant squid. The largest specimen ever found was a female, nearly 60 feet in length. The maximum length of a giant squid is unknown so they might easily exceed 60 feet. The kraken's length may not be so far fetched after all. While their eyes may not be hypnotic,the giant squid has the largest eyes of any known animal. If a larger species of squid is ever found it should be called the Kraken.

Squids

Cephalopods in general are very smart creatures. But squids, I think are the smartest of all the cephalopods.