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Jewel Squid
« on: 2003-07-07 23:46:45 » |
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Source: National Oceans Office
Dated: 2003-05-10
Noticed By: Lucifer
The jewel squids are one of the strangest occupants of open-ocean waters. Firstly they have wonky eyes, the left eye is always much larger than the right. In some species the left eye is telescopic while the smaller right eye is normal. These squids have a funny slant on life, literally. They hang at a 45 ° angle and use the huge eye to look up for passing prey. Meanwhile the normal eye looks below for any signs of attackers. The common name comes from the scattering of small iridescent spots over the undersides of the body, head and arms. These are tiny directional light organs like tiny car headlights. When the squid is hanging at a 45 ° angle, all the light organs aim down and produce just enough light to cancel out the silhouette of the squid against the weak light from the surface above. They can even adjust the lights for different depths or time of day. Jewel squids are able to float mid-water by filling their soft flesh with pockets of ammonia solution that is less dense than seawater and cancels out the weight of their muscles. They make these solutions out of their body wastes: urine is turned into buoyancy.
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