Vampire squid a human's inner ear) and ammonium-rich gelatinous tissues closely matching the density of the surrounding seawater. Like many deep-sea cephalopods, the vampire squid lacks ink sacs. If disturbed, it will curl its arms up outwards and wrap them around its body, turning itself inside-out in a way, exposing spiny projections. If highly agitated, it may eject a sticky cloud of bioluminescent mucus containing innumerable orbs of blue light from the arm tips. This luminous barrage, which may last nearly 10 minutes, would presumably serve to daze would-be predators and allow the vampire squid to disappear into the blackness without the
Giant squid which he called "teuthus", distinguishing it from the smaller squid, the "teuthis". He mentions, "of the calamaries, the so-called "teuthus" is much bigger than the "teuthis"; for "teuthi" [plural of "teuthus"] have been found as much as five ells long". Pliny the Elder, living in the first century AD, also described a gigantic squid in his "Natural History", with the head "as big as a cask", arms long, and carcass weighing . Tales of giant squid have been common among mariners since ancient times, and may have led to the Norse legend of the "kraken", a tentacled sea monster as