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Mystery creature captured

starbulletin.com — What appears to be a half-squid, half-octopus specimen found off Keahole Point on the Big Island remains unidentified today and could possibly be a new species, said local biologists.

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  • 1laradream, on 10/11/2007, -73/+6OMG! Just when we thought there were no more species. Great find gsjc, way to go! Dugg!
    • DiggsOnlyNeoCon, on 10/11/2007, -4/+68....since when did we think there were no more species?
      • hellokittyownsu, on 10/11/2007, -8/+2Since he was a republican...
    • grammarpolice, on 10/11/2007, -3/+27I read somewhere that we have only discovered about 15 or 20 percent of all the species in the world. We are no where close to classifying the animal kingdom. [ I'll get the citation in a couple of minutes ]
      • norman619, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6We know only a small fraction of what's living in the world oceans and the bulk of the world's wildlife is in the oceans.
    • koonchu, on 10/11/2007, -2/+30No more Mountain Dew for you, young man.
    • TwoWayMonologue, on 10/11/2007, -27/+0Sarcasm is the language of the ignorant.
    • Tippis, on 10/11/2007, -3/+14New? Bah! They've just caught some ancient Cthulhu spawn embryo form...
    • bluezinc, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9New species? Cool! ..... Can we eat it now?
    • berryhill, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1That's C'thun.
  • BlackStar77, on 10/11/2007, -7/+107Must be the evolved form of Octillery.
  • elcidcannon, on 10/11/2007, -8/+2Hmm....remind me to stay off the Big Island.
  • laughatyou, on 10/11/2007, -19/+1no they got nessy
    • drakenlot, on 10/11/2007, -1/+20Wrong location, shape, etc.

      You fail at life, game over.
    • Phyltre, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7"Mr. laughatyou, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
  • staxofmax, on 10/11/2007, -4/+202The day that octopuses and squid combine their powers, we're all screwed.
    • SmokeMeAKipper, on 10/11/2007, -13/+9Just wait until they breath air and come out of the surf to kick some naked ape ass.
    • dshPls, on 10/11/2007, -1/+26Meh, we'll just have to come together and mass create table salt.
    • brstilson, on 10/11/2007, -6/+21The day everyone starts using the correct plural form of octopus, we're all...well that would actually be an improvement wouldn't it?
      • thirdman, on 10/11/2007, -1/+57Yeah but its not as easy as you'd think, octopi is just as wrong. Octopus is not a simple Latin word of the second declension, but a Latinized form of the Greek word oktopous, and therefore its 'correct' plural would logically be octopodes. And no-one wants that...
        • counterplex, on 10/11/2007, -0/+22I don't know latin or greek but that just sounded awesome - who cares if it's valid? :) Dugg up!
        • Terr01, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Side-topic "Virus"/"Virii"/"Viruses"

          According to wikipedia, "virus" had it's origin as a word like "deadlyness" which is uncountable and has no plural ("deadlynesses?")

          So the use of "virus" as a single or countable thing postdates latin, so it's arguably a neologism with an undefined plural.
        • gromnie, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Octopoda, surely?

          My favourite, though, is the 'proper' plural for Hippopotamus: Hippoipotamon.
        • KlayBorg, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15I CHOOSE YOU HIPPOIPOTAMON!
      • Syphon8, on 10/11/2007, -5/+4The correct plural IS indeed octopuses.
      • staxofmax, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1Admittedly, spell-check saved my ass on that one.
      • Tippis, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11OED says:
        octopus (n) and (a)
        Plural: octopuses, octopi, (rare) octopodes
        • Urusai, on 10/11/2007, -5/+13I don't trust a British dictionary to arbitrate the American language.
      • nepawoods, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3Two mushrooms walk into a bar and order drinks. The bartender says "sorry, we don't serve mushrooms here". One of the mushrooms says "why not, we're fungi".


        no, wait ...


        A mushrooms walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender says "sorry, we don't serve mushrooms here". The mushrooms says "why not, I'm a fungus".


        no .....


        How does it go???
        • coviecarbine, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2dude...messing up your joke on purpose is not funny, besides thats a joke my dad tells. lame.
        • KlayBorg, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1What the ***** are you on?
    • mgd4, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1Squidopus or Octopid?
    • IkariGendou, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10Cthulhu Fhtagn!
    • CedEx, on 10/11/2007, -4/+0Why? I'd think that an octopus and squid combination would make an interesting calamari-like dish... *drool*

      This diet thing is getting pretty hard.
    • AtHomeBoy2000, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1no, it's those damn dolphins we need to keep an eye on! ;)
    • doople, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6I for one welcome our new squishy seafaring overlords.
      • DiggMasterJ, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1We all thought it, but only you were dumb enough to post it.
  • Jazzillion, on 10/11/2007, -9/+199It is a primitive form of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.. all praise!
    • AtHomeBoy2000, on 10/11/2007, -15/+1I, for one, welcome out new Flying Spaghetti Monster overloards!
  • Nougat, on 10/11/2007, -32/+20I, for one, welcome our new octosquid overlords.
    • insanebrain, on 10/11/2007, -16/+1I, for one, hate the stupid and outlived 'overlord' reply.
    • sylentmode, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I wouldn't mind trying our new overlords with some cocktail sauce....deepfried of course..
  • ZephyrNinety, on 10/11/2007, -17/+80Rosie O'Donnell.
  • ThunderPigs, on 10/11/2007, -3/+20Imagine a Collossal Octosquid.
    • boff, on 10/11/2007, -2/+12perhaps a Dire Octosquid?
      • feshmania, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2maybe a Dire Straits Octosquid?
        • Phyltre, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8...Giant Enemy Crab?
          • coviecarbine, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3The real digg effect: the humor of the joke is inversely proportional to the number of times it is replied to.
      • counterplex, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9Dire Octosquid hits you for 20 sucker damage!
        • JoCliMe, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1bringing new meaning to a sucker punch
    • sunshinemonster, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I'd say atleast an 80 foot cone of ink.
  • anarchyx34, on 10/11/2007, -4/+82I wonder what it tastes like.
  • kazersoza, on 10/11/2007, -2/+124This was the results of years of hot squid on octopus action.
  • FadieZ, on 10/11/2007, -28/+2lol...they find new species every day. Hardly a story.
    • TomPlansMedia, on 10/11/2007, -1/+18yeah we need to put an end to all of these "discoveries." i mean, really, first there isn't a giant squid/octupus hybrid creature and now there is? pick a side, science, we're at war.
  • disoriented, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2looks delicious
  • expat001, on 10/11/2007, -21/+8No, you see God made everything already so there can be no new species.

    jeeze you science people are really stupid.

    • bjs3171, on 10/11/2007, -13/+0no, you see, mutations, and freak mating can occur between different species, creating new species.

      "jeez" you bible thumpers are really stupid.

      also, by "new" they could very easily mean new to us. since it's never been seen/documented before. it's hard to know without scientific research.
      • expat001, on 10/11/2007, -5/+4dude I am atheist. it's called sarcasm. Check it out.
      • fantasticFlan, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1Well, actually (sorry), interspecies mating almost never produces a new species. IIRC there are only a couple known examples.

        And expat, it's new as in previously unknown, a usage most creationists would probably understand.
        • penguinofhonor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1look at the mule, the result of interspecies breeding between donkeys and horses
    • insanebrain, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1God didn't make Digg. We did !
      • yournamehere, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2God made us so we could make Digg. Now he has no use for us.
    • vornan19, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1I got your joke. dugg.
  • SWMpls, on 10/11/2007, -0/+48A Squoctopus?
    • LogicBomB, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1I think Octoscquid (from below this comment) is a MUCH better name :)
    • Phyltre, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1"Baskeraffe? ...Gerasketball? Man, I really hate this, it sucks!"
    • smithco, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1"Octosquid" is a bit banal. "Squoctopus" is better, but as a slight improvement, how about "Squictopus"? My quick round of testing demonstrated that, of the possible options, "Squictopus" is the most fun to say.
    • RoboTronDeluxe, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3That would be a great name for a restaurant, too. It would only serve dishes that feature the Squoctopus. Or perhaps a new McDonalds sandwich, the McSquactopus with cheese.
    • pirategaspard, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Agreed. Squoctopus flows nicely. Octosquid is awkward
  • kiltederic1, on 10/11/2007, -13/+100Can I do it.... please.....

    I, for one, welcome our new Octosquid Overlords.

    thanks
    • kiltederic1, on 10/11/2007, -11/+1darn it Nougat beat me. Must try harder.....
    • smithco, on 10/11/2007, -2/+29Thank you for asking nicely first. Good manners around bad jokes are always muchly appreciated.
    • Nougat, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15And somehow mine got dugg down. I guess that's how the octosquid crumbles.
      • kiltederic1, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1I dugg up yours being that you were first. Its only fair.
  • Innova69, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1mmmmmm, tasty!
  • TheNik, on 10/11/2007, -15/+3im in ur kingdum, squidin ur octipuss
  • bovester, on 10/11/2007, -10/+6http://duggmirror.com/general_sciences/Mystery_creature_captured/
  • caoimhinn, on 10/11/2007, -1/+107Dr. Zoidberg?
    • FearlessFreep, on 10/11/2007, -2/+15On my planet, clams enjoy eating a tasty you
  • EComni, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2Half-squid, half-octupus? It has 9 legs then?
    • Renton, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1seven
    • zzzpoohzzz, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0i'd go with 8 and a half.... i mean thats in between 8 and 9...
      duh.
  • trying2hide, on 10/11/2007, -3/+27I'm sorry is this the creature from "LOST" or did it eat an iPhone?
  • tconnect80, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10Now the 'starbulletin' just needs to find a server that can handle more than 14 hits.
  • bunch28, on 10/11/2007, -4/+11Isn't it true we know more about outespace then we do about our own oceans?
    • tackle, on 10/11/2007, -2/+14Actually, with all do respect, we dont know squat.
    • ColdDimSum, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Only in the sense that we can receive light from distant stars, but there are likely many billions of more mysteries in the universe than there are in the deep ocean. Also, in recent years, deep diving robots and such have explored much more than they could 20 years ago.
      • yournamehere, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4it's the same sub Rosie O'Donnell's gynecologist uses.
  • Scyth3, on 10/11/2007, -7/+1http://img166.imagevenue.com/aAfkjfp01fo1i-19536/loc219/63047_art3_122_219lo.jpg

    [mirror'ed since duggmirror didn't catch it all in time]
  • n8r0n, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14Coming soon to a fillet-o-fish near you!
  • okmon, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1Would have squid, half octopus mean it's 9 tentacled?
  • johnmcgowan, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tentacruel
  • ruley, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thecallofcthulhu.htm
  • r3thsp3kt, on 10/11/2007, -7/+2It never fails to amaze how the scientific community sucks at coming up with interesting or colorful names for things.

    Scientist 1: Hey, check that thing out...it's, like, half-octopus, half-squid.

    Scientist 2: Hmm...what should we call it?

    Scientist 1: Um...octo...squid? "Octosquid"!

    Scientist 2: Hell yes!
  • ThatForumPlace, on 10/11/2007, -4/+0Mirror: http://www.thatforumplace.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6583
  • bjs3171, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9look, a new species! let's let it die!
    • fantasticFlan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6It was sucked up from the bottom of the ocean, probably hard to keep alive outside its native environment.
      • crazedgremlin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4they should make a tank pressurized for 700ft underwater!
        • ssbopper, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0Or they could have simply let it go seeing as it lived for three days until it died after they captured it. What if it was among the last of an endangered previously undiscovered species?
  • SquirrelHumper, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6I'm confused, has everyone at FARK just spammed DIGG?
    • Ahnteis, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Digg, Fark, Reddit, etc -- they all have the same stories day after day. Most of the tech ones also end up on slashdot a day or two after.
  • lazysquid, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0mirror anyone?
  • feshmania, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3As long as it isn't a giant Octosquid and I'm not 15-20,000 leagues under the sea, I fear not this animal
  • geoffpado, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2Bah. It's just a new viral ad for that Cloverfield movie. Creating a giant octo-squid and throwing it in the ocean is just Abram's style. :P
  • dbw42, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Mirror: http://starbulletin.com.nyud.net:8080/2007/07/05/news/story03.html
    • kirakun, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I dugg you back up. Seriously I don't know who was the IDIOT who dugg you down. Yours is the ONLY mirror that work up to this point of the comments section. Some people just get a kick out of digging people down. Sad indeed.
  • twishart, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I would have preferred Squidopus.
  • Ub3rg33k, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Cthulhu returns!
  • otep, on 10/11/2007, -3/+25.
    Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff.
    Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
    Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling.
    Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes...
    Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave.
    Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, SQUIDS & OCTOPUS living together - mass hysteria.

    .
  • certifried, on 10/11/2007, -3/+9My pastor once commented about how God had already made cross-breeds. His example was a "Horse and Donkey". I incorrectly replied it was a "honkey". It's actually a mule.
    • Syphon8, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2But humans made mules... And they're aren't even all called mules, either.
      • monesy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3yes, humans made them...and yes, they are called mules. get your facts straight
  • SirBotchness, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1i smell potato chop
  • Mustelidae9, on 10/11/2007, -1/+15Paging Dr. Lovecraft, paging Dr. Lovecraft. You are wanted in the department of Zoology for necropsy of an unknown cephalopod.
  • harley999, on 10/11/2007, -8/+2It's a squid, it's an octopus, it's ... a mystery from the deep.

    What appears to be a half-squid, half-octopus specimen found off Keahole Point on the Big Island remains unidentified today and could possibly be a new species, said local biologists.

    The specimen was found caught in a filter in one of Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority's deep-sea water pipelines last week. The pipeline, which runs 3,000 feet deep, sucks up cold, deep-sea water for the tenants of the natural energy lab.

    "When we first saw it, I was really delighted because it was new and alive," said Jan War, operations manager at NELHA. "I've never seen anything like that."

    The natural energy lab is a state agency that operates Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park in Kailua-Kona, adjacent to one of the steepest offshore slopes in the Hawaiian Islands.

    According to Richard Young, an oceanography professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the specimen tentatively belongs to the genus Mastigoteuthis, but the species is undetermined.

    War, who termed the specimen "octosquid" for the way it looked, said it was about a foot long, with white suction cups, eight tentacles and an octopus head with a squidlike mantle.

    The octosquid was pulled to the surface, along with three rattail fish and half a dozen satellite jellyfish, and stayed alive for three days. According to War, the lab usually checks its filters once a month, but this time, it put a plankton net in one of the filters and checked it two weeks later.

    The pitch-black conditions at 3,000 feet below sea level are unfamiliar to most but riveting to scientists who have had the opportunity to submerge. The sea floor is full of loose sediment, big boulders and rocks, and a lot of mucuslike things floating in the water, which are usually specimens that died at the surface and drifted to the bottom.

    "It's quite fascinating," War said. "When you get below 700 feet, it's a totally different world. Lots of fish have heads like a fish and a body like an eel. There are fish floating in a vertical position, with the head up, and don't move unless they're disturbed."

    Christopher Kelley, program biologist for the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory, went to the natural energy lab Tuesday to pick up the preserved octosquid, rattail fish and jellyfish, which had been stored in a freezer, and brought them back to UH-Manoa's oceanography department.

    "It's a beautiful squid. It's a gorgeous ruby red color," Kelley said. "We really enjoy these little mysteries that come up."

    Also during Kelley's visit to NELHA yesterday, he and War talked about a more formal sampling program to search for other deep-sea critters. War said their goal is to sample the intake screen more often and capture animals alive and study them in captivity.

    "This opens up a whole new area of research that UH can be involved with," War said.

    In October, NELHA will be checking its deep-sea pipelines, something that usually happens every eight to 10 years, because it is worried that something might have happened to them during the earthquakes in October.

    "If it's a new species, (NELHA) would like to name it," War said. "But that is sort of the honor of whoever classifies it."
  • wing05, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7What's with all the stories of squids these days?

    It's like aliens from another planet suddenly seeded our oceans with giant/colossal squid and octopus half breeds.
    • paganmonkeyboy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1no - is because all the ***** we dumped into the oceans has changed the acidity, and now they are de-volving. Soon it will be all jellies and bacteria mats - very soon, actually.
      'Well timmy, once there was these things called fish, but we humans like to pee in our food dish...'
  • Ocelot13, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4its a Squidbilly
  • Travisx2, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8hmm.. a Giant one of those would actually look more like the old drawings of sea monsters.
  • dysfunct, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2***** that thing.
    • yournamehere, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10ok but you'll have to hold it's legs
    • dbhaley, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Then we'll have some new species... a humanoctosquid! Or.... something....
    • kiltederic1, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0... 4 pints of booze..... I'd hit it.
  • WolfTexas, on 10/11/2007, -5/+3I bet it would make a nice pair of shoes or a small purse for Paris Hilton...
  • MikeonTV, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3mmmmm mmm mm - Looks delicious.
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