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It's Spooky: Latest Magnapinna Sighting!

By Kevin Ferguson
November 25, 2008
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bigfinsqui

Yesterday, while the weirdo news cycle was still in recovery from the Massachusetts piano-in-the-forest incident, National Geographic went online with this unreal video of a Magnapinna, or Big Fin squid. What is a Magnapinna, you ask? Nobody is totally sure. The squid, or whatever it is, is set apart from most other Cephalopods thanks largely to its giant fins and seemingly infinite tentacles—they've been estimated to be as long as 23 feet, fully extended. They sort of resemble a pinkish version of the Independence Day alien, which makes you wonder where the designer got his inspiration from. The Smithsonian (who generously provided the photo on the left per the website's fair use policy) loosely defines these magnapinnae by their "very long contractile arms and tentacles which appear identical, arms held outward from the body axis then abruptly bent anteriorly, and extremely large terminal fins which slowly undulate."

I guess we won't know more until somebody catches one of these things? Ideally this would be done by a professional but we might want to relegate this task to some of the Los Angeles-bound cargo ships. They seem to have a knack for inadvertently capturing giant sea creatures.

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