Page 84 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2021

LEISURE
Vampire Squid
GET TO KNOW THE GULF:
CLASSIFICATION
CLASS: Cephalopoda FAMILY: Vampyroteuthidae GENUS: Vampyroteuthis SPECIES: infernalis
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FUN FACTS
• Vampire squids sound scary, but there is nothing to be afraid of here – they are small, harmless, and rare ocean creatures!
• Related to squids and octopuses, vampire squids are in their own family. They have eight arms and two tentacles.
• The vampire squid gets its common name from the skin that connects its eight arms, which looks like a dark, velvet cape.
• Vampire squids live in the deep ocean from 2,000-3,000 feet.
• They don’t squirt black ink when disturbed like shallow- water squids and octopuses – the ink would not show up
in the deep, dark ocean waters! Instead, vampire squids squirt a cloud of bright, glowing liquid to confuse potential predators.
• Vampire squids are about 12” long, the size and shape of a football.
• They feed on marine snow, the small bits of decaying plant and animal matter that drifts down from the ocean surface.
story by Christina Mohrman
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84 | October 2021 www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living