🦑 VAMPIRE SQUID... From Hell !! 🦑

Certainly there are several fictional monsters known to provide quite a scare in the coming Halloween, but none of them is as scary as the ones found in the depth below. With deep red skin, icy blue eyes, and webbed tentacles, meet today's beast on the channel, the Vampire Squid from Hell. Belonging to the class Cephalopoda, it is found in the deepest and darkest parts of the ocean. It has spikes and tentacles that are more ancient than the dinosaurs. Now if you're still wondering whether this particular creature is creepy enough, just imagine naming it the Vampire Squid. Although most scientists name creatures based on their habitats, their species, or their most characteristic features, this tiny guest of ours has been named Vampyrotuthis Infinalis, which literally refers to Vampire Squid from Hell. Call it coincidence or nature's play. Vampire Squid have an uncanny resemblance to vampires in their predatory behavior. Although Vampire Squids are often termed as harmless creatures, disturb them to see the havoc they cause. Vampire Squids have such a biological construct which is both disgusting and frightening at the same time. These creatures resemble the anatomy of a jellyfish, an octopus. It has a soft, jelly-like body that moves through the water with the help of eight tentacles, which makes it easy for it to have control of the area surrounding it. Vampire Squids have a cloak-like body with spine-like stretches which are their arms. Vampire Squids are detritivores. They are the only known living cephalopod that does not catch and eat live animals for food, as it releases thread-like filaments to capture its prey and mostly feeds on organic debris and tiny jelly species, so other animals aren't threatened by them. One of the coolest things about the Vampire Squid is that its body is covered in photophores. These small, light-producing organs scattered all over help scare off predators. Much like the fictional vampires, they become invisible to the naked eye in bright light, but acquire their full potential in extreme depths of the ocean in complete darkness. Their size ranges from 10 to 30 centimeters with a weight of one pound, approximately. The Vampire Squid has two eyes on either side of the head which are large and ball-like and have a very bright shine. In terms of proportion to body size, they have the biggest eyes in the entire animal kingdom. Another jaw-dropping feature of this squid is that it has three hearts. And though it's named the Vampire Squid, it doesn't have any fangs. Even teeth are absent for that matter. Also, they don't actually drink blood. Now, there is an interesting story behind its name. During the late 1800s, marine biologists were on a German deep-sea expedition, and they were surveying depths of the ocean that they had never seen or studied before. Carl Thun was the first person who introduced to the Vampire Squid. He saw its red eyes, its dark tentacles, and its cape-like webbing, and he decided that it was a Vampire Squid from the depths of the underworld. Again, the Vampire Squid isn't considered an aggressive species. Their natural weapons are spike-lined skin and the ability to produce both light and mucus. But these are always used in defense and not offense. They only feed on ocean detritus, and they aren't known to be competitive or even territorial. No recorded case of Vampire Squids hurting humans has ever been reported, as you have to capture one of them from the depths of the oceans and annoy it to the extreme such that it doesn't have an option but to hurt you in defense. Photophores are just part of their defense mechanism. In addition, they also can turn themselves inside out. Just visualize that for a second. Oh wait, it's on the screen. In an encounter with a predator, the Vampire Squid can invert its body until its webbed and caped tentacles are completely over its vulnerable neck and head. It's also known as a pumpkin or a pineapple posture. Along with providing an extra layer of padding, it also exposes the spikes on the tentacles. This results in a large, fearsome looking figure covered in jagged points that has no visible face. It's scary enough that the predator will choose to swim away rather than engage with a strange and potentially dangerous enemy. But the true irony of the situation is that these spikes just look sharp. They are completely harmless. The Vampire Squid is basically a bluff master. Another key feature of the Vampire Squid is that it can regenerate and heal itself in a way. Well, at least the very tips of the tentacles if damaged. Using their extra large photophores as a last resort for defending against a predator when they're in a defensive pumpkin posture, the glowing tips are all clustered together. Those luminescent tentacle tips act as an acceptable target that diverts the predator's attention away from other, more critical, more non-generative areas. In simple words, if the predator is desperate enough to take a bite of this squid by its luminescent and shining tentacle ends, it offers it for a bite. The Vampire Squid can easily regenerate those non-essential parts later. The Vampire Squid is at the mercy of deep diving and deep-dwelling animals. Whales and sea lions often consider it a delicacy. Six-foot giant grenadier is its largest predator. Vampire squids are foragers. They're scavengers. Marine snow is their major source of food. The marine snow is actually just the continuous shower of small, fragile, organic material at the bottom of the ocean. It consists of everything starting from seaweed to tiny dead remnants of scalps and larvaceans. Stretched out filaments collect it and are consumed afterwards. Vampire squids are the only species of cephalopods that don't actually hunt for their food. They just collect it. They prefer small and soft things, so there's really never any struggle. Planktons don't put up a fight, after all. Though it resembles both True Squid and True Octopi, Vampire Squid don't shoot cephalopod ink. The only secretion coming out of their body is the bright mucus that they use to stun predators. The Vampire Squid has no poison or venom. The mucus they secrete from their tentacles is, once again, completely harmless. Vampire squids reproduce many times. This is a distinguishable feature, as other squid and octopi only reproduce once before dying. The female Vampire Squid is known to incubate as many as 10,000 immature eggs in its body, and since a single egg clutch consists of around 100 eggs, it has to be laid in multiple deliveries. Male Vampire Squids have their own spermatophores. These are sperm capsules that are delivered to the females. Females hold onto them for several months before using them to fertilize their eggs. Babies hatch from eggs. They have the same general form as their parents, but they only measure around 8 millimeters long and their bodies are transparent. They lack the webbing between their tentacles, and their filaments are underdeveloped. Time makes that happen. Vampire Squids dwell at depths of 2,000 to 3,000 feet below the surface. They may float carefree about the water, or they might hide in caves and corals. This information about them is rather ambiguous due to a lack of actual research about them. As they reside so far underwater that humans can't traverse to their natural habitat without the help of submarines and remotely controlled recording devices, no one has ever in-depth studied the Vampire Squid in the wild. A person would be very lucky to find a lost or injured Vampire Squid floating closer to the surface than usual. The Vampire Squid has a savage and wild reputation, but as you can see, it is completely unearned. Opposite of that, they are extremely simple creatures that have been minding their own business for decades, and they pose no danger to humans. The ocean might be a ghastly, fearsome place, but not everything inside of it is devilish, and the Vampire Squid just proves that. The Vampire Squid hasn't been officially evaluated by the IUCN, but it isn't extinct, and it is unlikely to be endangered. After all, I mean, it's survived for more than 300 million years at this point. I'd say its streak is pretty strong. Tell us what you think of this fascinating, vampiric-looking, secretive, mysterious, beautiful beast in the comment section below. And of course, don't forget to leave a like on the video, smash that subscribe button with your slimy tentacles, and hit that notification bell for more intriguing beasts. Thanks for watching, see you guys in the next one!