Colossal Squid Was Docile Blob, Not T-Rex of Sea

Aug. 21, 2008 -- New Zealand's mysterious colossal squid, the largest of the feared and legendary species ever caught, was not the T-Rex of the oceans but a lethargic blob, new research suggests.

The 1,090-pound female, accidently hauled in by a fishing boat in the Antarctic last year, was an overweight breeding machine, leading marine biologist Steve O'Shea said Thursday.

The colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), donated to the country's national museum, was probably quite docile when alive, said O'Shea.

"The colossal species has a reputation for being an aggressive and dangerous predator and have been feared and misrepresented in the past," O'Shea said.

"My research suggests they're not the T-rex of the sea, they get more docile as they mature, a strange phenomenon that has caught scientists off guard.

"We are looking at something verging on the incredibly bizarre. As she got older she got shorter and broader and was reduced to a giant gelatinous blob, carrying many thousands of eggs," he said.

"Her shape was likely to have affected her behavior and ability to hunt. I can't imagine her jetting herself around in the water at any great speed, and she was too gelatinous to have been a fighting machine.

"It's likely she was just blobbing around the seabed carrying her brood of eggs, living on dead fish, while her mate was off hunting."

The squid began to reveal its secrets to a team of fascinated scientists in April when it was thawed after being frozen on the fishing boat.