Squid Squid Squid are cephalopods in the order Teuthida with elongated bodies, large eyes, eight arms and two tentacles. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, and a mantle. They are mainly soft-bodied, like octopuses, but have a small internal skeleton in the form of a rod-like gladius or pen, made of chitin. Squid can change colour for camouflage and signalling. Some species are bioluminescent, using their light for counter-illumination camouflage. Squid are members of the class Cephalopoda, subclass Coleoidea. The squid orders Myopsida and Oegopsida are in the superorder Decapodiformes (from the Greek for "ten-legged"). Two
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