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An important addition to our
Aquatic World gallery was to have an example of a giant squid. It
was decided that a model would be built based on a mature female with
a mantle (body) length of 1.85 meters. This animal was stranded at
Soetwater, near the Slangkop lighthouse at Kommetjie, after a storm
in March 1991. The museum's taxidermy section would undertake the model
and that it would have to be as accurate as possible based on the
latest squid findings and research. As luck would have it the museum
has a resident squid specialist who would provide the necessary
scientific background and expertise.
Reconstructing the Soetwater giant squid involved
a lot of research to fill in the details that were lost due to damage
of the specimen. Sources of information included records and photographs
of other specimens collected in recent years. Still, none of the
South African giant squids had intact tentacles, which may reach
a length eight times that of the mantle. Even the eight shorter
arms were incomplete in all our specimens.
For information on the tentacles, specimens
were examined in other museums overseas. Architeuthis tentacles
seen in museums in Denmark and Norway were photographed and measured,
reconstructed and enlarged to a size appropriate for our large female.
We also delved into the literature, going back
to the 1880s, for details and reconstructions of animals stranded
in places as remote as Newfoundland and New Zealand, and found that
many of the drawings and models of giant squids are inaccurate.
Most models show arms that are too thin, the funnel too far forward,
eyelids the wrong shape and inaccurate anterior mantle margin and
head shape. We also had to take some guesses, as the eyeballs collapse
and the head sags after death.
Our first step in constructing the model was
to draw scaled-down drawings of a reconstructed Architeuthis,
based on measurements taken from the Soetwater female. This prompted
questions such as:
- "Is the mantle round in cross section?"
We decided that a slight oval, wider than high, would look more
natural than completely round.
- How wide are the arms, and what is their
shape in cross section?" Compare photo of sectioned specimen,
same view of model and Wechsler 1999, fig. 4.
- "Which way should the funnel point?
i.e. is the squid hovering, going forward or back, fast or slow,
catching prey or cruising or just hanging there?" We wanted
to make as few assumptions as necessary, so the funnel points
down as the squid is hovering and gently breathing in and out.
- "Where is the eye placed in relation
to the arms - how high and how far forward?"
- "How long are the arms and tentacles?"
The arms are about the same length as the mantle, or slightly
longer, which is very long compared with most other squids. The
two longer tentacles vary between º x and 8x the mantle length,
so we made ours long enough to fill the space available - 7.15
metres and at 3.86x mantle length, well within the range. The
total length of this model is 9.3 metres.
Text by Martina C. Roeleveld |
