''Grimalditeuthis bonplandi'' is a

squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

named after the

Grimaldi family The House of Grimaldi is the reigning house of the Principality of Monaco. The house was founded in 1160 by Grimaldo Canella in Genoa and became the ruling house of Monaco when Francesco Grimaldi captured Monaco in 1297. Every Prince of Mo ...

, reigning house of

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

. Prince Albert I of Monaco was an amateur

teuthologist Teuthology (from Ancient Greek, Greek τεῦθος, "Common Cuttlefish, cuttlefish, European squid, squid", and -λογία, ''-logy, -logia'') is the study of Cephalopod, cephalopods, which are members of the class Cephalopod, Cephalopoda in ...

who pioneered the study of deep sea squids by collecting the 'precious regurgitations' of

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the Genus (biology), genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the s ...

s. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''bonplandi'' refers to the French scientist

Aimé Bonpland Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (; 22 August 1773 – 11 May 1858) was a French List of explorers, explorer and botany, botanist who traveled with Alexander von Humboldt in Latin America from 1799 to 1804. He co-authored volumes of the scie ...

. The squid was observed alive in the wild for the first time in 2005 in a study. ''Grimalditeuthis bonplandi'' is a bioluminescent species. This species shows an interesting case of

aggressive mimicry Aggressive mimicry is a form of mimicry in which predation, predators, parasites, or parasitoids share similar signalling theory, signals, using a harmless model, allowing them to avoid being correctly identified by their prey or host (biolog ...

, with the tips of the long tentacles having the appearance of a small harmless squid. It lures fish and other squids by dangling the tips of the tentacles very far away from its body, then quickly snatching the fooled prey into its death. Intact tentacles suspected to be from this species have been found inside the longnose lancetfish.

Distribution

This squid has been infrequently encountered, but it is believed to exist worldwide. It lives in the

mesopelagic The mesopelagic zone (Greek language, Greek μέσον, middle), also known as the middle pelagic or twilight zone, is the part of the pelagic zone that lies between the photic epipelagic and the aphotic bathypelagic zones. It is defined by light ...

and

bathypelagic The bathypelagic zone or bathyal zone (from Greek βαθύς (bathýs), deep) is the part of the open ocean that extends from a depth of below the ocean surface. It lies between the mesopelagic above and the abyssopelagic below. The bathypela ...

zone at depths of 200–1500 m below

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

Morphology

''G. bonplandis maximum

mantle length Cephalopods, which include squids and octopuses, vary enormously in size. The smallest are only about long and weigh less than at maturity, while the giant squid can exceed in length and the colossal squid weighs close to half a tonne (), makin ...

is 25 cm. It differs from its family Chiroteuthidae by having a longer neck and a different body and fin shape. Its mantle locking apparatus is also fused. It is one of the many

squids A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called ''squi ...

that is

bioluminescent Bioluminescence is the emission of light during a chemiluminescence reaction by living organisms. Bioluminescence occurs in multifarious organisms ranging from marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms inc ...

. Its

photophores A photophore is a specialized anatomical structure found in a variety of organisms that emits light through the process of Bioluminescence, boluminescence. This light may be produced endogenously by the organism itself (symbiotic) or generat ...

are present only in the tips of the female squid's

tentacles In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work main ...

References

External links

Tree of Life web project: ''Grimalditeuthis bonplandi''
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15813044, from2=Q2707838 Chiroteuthidae Monotypic cephalopod genera Bioluminescent molluscs House of Grimaldi

Distribution

Morphology

See also

References

External links