I. Introduction

This organism looks like it could star in a deep sea horror film wih its red eyes, and pitch black body, it also has the name to match. But this squid is only 6 inches in length and practically harmless to humans. The squids scientific name is Vampyroteuthis Infernalis and its the only survivng member of the Vampyromorphida. It lives deep in tropical oceans (1,800-3,500feet). Its also a different member of the cephalopod famly in that it shares similariies with the squid and the octopus. Researchers had even mistaken it in 1903 as a squid.



II. Anatomy

Like I mentioned before the vampire squid is only 6 inches in length. The vampire squid has large fins at the top of its body that serve as propulsions which will flap and allow the squid to fly through the water at a remarkable speed (reaching speeds of over two body lengths per second). Like other squids it also uses jet propulsions to move by expelling water though a specialized siphon jet located just under its mantle. This squid also has has the largest eyes relative to its body size of an animal, they are about the size of a large dogs eyes, and depending on the light they could either be red or blue. Each of the eight arms is lined with a singe row of suction cups and rows of soft, fleshy spines known as cirri. For these features it attains its unormal name.



III. Form and Function

The squids body is covered with light-producing photophores which allows it to turn itself "on or off" whenever through a process called bioluminescence. When turned off the squid s practically invisible in the black depths of the sea. It has the ability to modulate the size and intensity of the photophores to create complex patterns that can confuse predators and and alow it to attack prey. The photophors are larger and more complex at the tips of the arms and the base of its two fins. This ability is its main defense, since it lacks the ink sack which other squid species have. But when threatened it can eject a thick cloud of glowing, biolumenescent mucus from the tips of its arms.


I. Human Interaction

Since the vampire squid lives so far below the ocean they have no normal contact with humans but they are virtualy harmless to us.


II. Journal Entry

http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=179

Vampyroteuthis Infernalis tanslates to the vampire squid from hell and its also the only member of the order Vampyromorphida the seventh order in the class Cephalopoda and has features from both the squid and the octopus. The body composition of the Vampire squid is that similar to the jellyfish, it has very large eyes; proportionally it has the largest eye to body ratio of any other animal in the wold.

This Journal was very interesting to me because it gave and explained plainly all the fun





~http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vampyroteuthis_illustration.jpg

~http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/vampire-squid.html

~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3CJIKKSUpg