New Observation: Some Female Squids Protect Eggs

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2Tours N Iraq`

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Here is an article published by the Associated Press about new findings about some female squids protecting their eggs for up to 6-9 months. All copywrited material belonging to the AP will appear in italics.

Researchers said they have uncovered evidence that some mother squids nurse their eggs for months after laying them, helping to disprove a long-held theory that all female squids simply abandoned new offspring on the ocean floor.

Mother squids of the Gonatus onyx species were found to lug around pouches of new eggs in their tentacles for up to six to nine months at a time, even though the load can weigh a quarter of their own weight and makes the mother slower and more vulnerable to predators, according to a study published in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Nature.

Physiologist Brad A. Seibel, of the University of Rhode Island, and two researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute made the discovery while patrolling the deep waters of a submerged canyon off Monterey Bay with a robotic submarine.

"Our finding is unexpected because this behavior differs from the reproductive habits of all other known squid species," Seibel said.

The findings suggest that similar maternal behavior might exist in other squid-like creatures, said Steven H.D. Haddock, one of the Monterey Bay researchers.

There are between 700 and 1,000 known types of squids and octopi.

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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle
 
Interesting. Of course in many of the species believed to "abandon" their eggs, they do so because they die after mating and egg laying. I guess they didn't have much choice in the matter.
 
I'm not surprised by this. Egg Brooding is a very popular strategy for deepwater fauna.

I wish CephBase was working.
 
drbill:
Interesting. Of course in many of the species believed to "abandon" their eggs, they do so because they die after mating and egg laying. I guess they didn't have much choice in the matter.

Which brings up an interesting question. When I've seen the opalescent or market squid up here breeding by the hundreds in an orgy like fashion I've seen the aftermath which included several dead and dying squid. However given the numbers that I've seen breeding why am I not seeing hundreds of dead squid?
 
Some may have moved farther off before dying or gotten carried away by currents, but most get eaten.
They tend get eaten pretty quickly by everything around. It's a huge buffet for the animals like blue sharks and bat rays (and many others) that eat them.
Blue sharks have been seen turning their stomachs inside out because they've eaten so much, just to contiue eating. Kind of cool, kind of gross. :)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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