~ Feeding ~
Although giant squid are equipped with eight arms up to to 3 meters in length, likely none of them are used to grab prey. The two much longer tentacles actually make the catch. Tentacles may reach a length of 10-12 meters. At the business end, away from the head, the tentacles expand to resemble clubs. Both arms and tentacular clubs are equipped with suckers, which are sub-spherical cups lined with sharp, finely serrated rings of chitin. Suckers do exactly what you think they do: they use powerful suction to hold onto prey while the rings of chitin sink into the hapless animal. The arms have suckers arranged in rows from the base near the mantle to the tips, whereas the tentacles are smooth from the base to near the club where there are small suckers
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Tentacular club sucker marks |
Suckers cover only the inner surface of the arms and tentacles, with two rows on the arms and four on the clubs. Although giant squid tentacles are very, very long compared to the arms and mantle, and even proportionately longer than the tentacles of most other squid, they have the same function, snatching prey at a distance. In the case of the giant squid, that may be a snatch more than 10 meters (30 feet) from the animal's eye!
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Think of your own arms as giant squid tentacles. Stretch them to 10 meters. Your hand is a club. Now imagine four rows of suckers with finely serrated edges lining your palms and two rows of smaller suckers along the inside of your fingers. Add knobs to these and both tentacles can be locked together during prey capture. Now that you are equipped like Architeuthis, imagine how well you could catch a baseball without a mitt! And if your sucker-carrying arms are 10 m long...? |
Suckers |
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Beak |
Once caught by Architeuthis, the unlucky fish or squid is moved to the arms. The arms then further subdue the prey, pulling it to the strong, sharp beaks.The beaks are operated by a massive set of muscles that allow them to bite through just about anything the squid might capture. But the giant squid's bite-sized pieces of food need further shredding before being digested. The tongue is equipped with an organ known as the radula, which is loaded with rows of small, file-like teeth. The radula further shreds the meal before the tongue pushes it down the esophagus to the digestive organs. |
