Alien life is here on Earth In 1907, a strange creature was caught off the Azores in Portugal. It wa

Alien life is here on EarthIn 1907, a strange creature was caught off the Azores in Portugal. It was badly damaged, and little information could be gained from it, apart from the fact that it was some sort of squid. Over the years, similar specimens were found and eventually given their own taxonomic family, Magnapinnidae. Although not visible in the image below (but very visible in this image: http://bit.ly/251cTdH), the identifying characteristics among all these specimens was their large fin size, which comprised up to 90% of the mantle length. Logically, family Magnapinnidae were given the common name of bigfin squids. The late 1980s to early 2000s saw a bunch of sightings of this elusive deep-sea creature, which were often encountered with the use of deep-sea submersibles at depths between 2,340 metres (7,680 ft) and 4,735 metres (15,535 ft). From these sightings it was discerned that the squid reached an estimated length of 7 metres (23 ft) with its arms fully extended, however most videos taken of the creature were brief and blurry.In November 2007, the best footage we have was captured by a ROV (remote operated vehicle) at a drilling site run by Shell Oil Company off the coast of Houston, Texas. Several interesting features were gained from this footage. Firstly, all ten of the arms appeared to be the same length and looked identical to one another - unlike most cephalopods which usually have eight short arms and two longer tentacles. The orientation of the tentacles relative to the body were also strange. The squid appeared to have elbows, of a sort, with the appendages being held perpendicular to the body. True to its name, the fins were almost disproportionately large, even for an adult squid named after its big fins.Beyond this, very little is known about the squid’s behaviour or life history. You can see the video they took here: http://bit.ly/1YDOerJ. It may be the jerky, erratic camerawork or the green light, but I found this video to be truly eerie. Even more so because it highlights just how much life may exist on our planet that we don’t even know about yet. And that, I think, is also very cool.VPReferences: http://bit.ly/22gGKgo, http://bit.ly/1WDzrjJImage credit: U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (http://bit.ly/1OLON2C) -- source link

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