Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Subclass: Coleoidea
Superorder: Decapodiformes
Order: Teuthida
Squids are aquatic creatures that have eight arms and two tentacles (with suckers) arranged with pairs. Squids feed on other invertebrates and fish, using there tentacles to capture their prey. They are fast swimmers and varacious predators. When in danger, squids also have the ability to squirt ink.
Squids are usually about 60cm in length when fully grown, but then there is the Giant Squid which can grow up to 20 metres! A live giant squid was observed for the first time on September 30, 2004, by two Japanese scientists: Tsunemi Kubodera of the National Science Museum (of Japan) and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association. From their initial observations, the scientists concluded that giant squid appear to be more aggressive than previously thought. A 5.5 meter long tentacle was retrieved (accidentally) from the creature and DNA tests compared with other giant squid specimens previously washed up on shore confirmed that indeed they had observed a live giant squid. The scientists estimated the total size of the squid to be eight meters.
More recently in early 2006 another giant squid, measuring 8.62m (28ft), was caught off the coast of the Falkland Islands by a trawler. The squid now resides in a glass tank, filled to the brim with preservative solution, and is one of 22 million specimens that can be seen as part of the behind-the-scenes Darwin Centre tour of the Natural History Museum in London.
Squids are popular as food in cuisines as widely separated as Korean and Italian. In fish markets and restaurants in English-speaking countries, it is often known by the name calamari, from the Greek-Italian word for these animals. Individual species of squid are found abundantly in certain areas and provide large catches for fisheries.
Kraken
The Kraken by Tennyson
Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
The Kraken is a mythological creature (although it has been written about in factual books a long time ago and has apparantely been spotted off the coasts of Scandinavia and Iceland), which is a giant cephalopod squid/octopus creature that lives in the sea. There have been many stories about the Kraken so I'll just name a few more modern/well-known ones...
~~(.v.)~~ The modern adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by Peter Jackson portrays the Watcher in the Water as a Kraken-like creature, albeit it living in freshwater. The book, however, does not describe it as Kraken-like as this.
~~(.v.)~~ Kraken appears many times as a boss in videogames such as The Ocean Hunter, Wild Arms 3, Fable, Golden Sun, Dynamite Cop, Blaze and Blade, Beyond the Beyond, Shining Force II, Sly Cooper, Ocean Hunter, Guild Wars, Ultima Online and EarthBound
~~(.v.)~~ Kraken was in Pirates of the Caribbean II; Dead Man's Chest and was the first CG Kraken in any film. We only really see this Kraken when Will falls into the water and looks at it for a few seconds, but Davy Jones calls upon it many times to destroy various ships so you see a lot of tentacles and its huge mouth.
Thanks Wikipedia!
