Writer Ellis Tells Of Giant Squids

It's eyes are the size of dinner plates. It's tentacles stretch more than 50 feet in length. It has a mass of over one ton. It's big. It's red. And it takes no prisoners.

But this is not the latest monster out of Hollywood. It's Architeuthis, the giant squid, and its real.

About 80 people gathered at the Harvard Museum of Natural History last night to hear Richard Ellis, celebrated marine artist and writer, lecture about his new book, In Search of the Giant Squid, and the animal that inspired it.

The giant squid is "the single most fascinating mystery in the ocean, and perhaps the single most fascinating mystery in natural history," Ellis said.

The squid, which has never been seen alive by a human being, has long been the subject of ocean folklore and myth.

For centuries, dismayed sailors and startled whalers would return from their voyages with stories of huge, tentacled sea monsters that terrorized the ocean. For the landlocked, these stories were mere exaggerations-until 1870.

As Ellis explained, it was then that the first giant squid washed ashore on the coast of Newfoundland and the mysterious animal took the biological world by storm.

Since that date, more than 100 giant squid, all dead, have been found on various coastlines and in the nets of deep sea fishers. While scientists have learned much about the animal, it still remains somewhat of an enigma.

Giant squid are assumed to live at depths of more than 4,000 feet, in the coldest and darkest parts of the ocean, he said.

Eyes are a nuisance here, far beyond the point where light is able to filter through the water from the surface. Yet giant squid have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, Ellis said.

According to Ellis, an even greater mystery is the giant squid's relationship to its chief predator, the sperm whales, huge ocean beasts that weigh up to 60 tons.

Yet, sperm whales are mammals and rely on oxygen from the surface to survive. Consequently, scientists find it hard to fathom how sperm whales can dive to depth of 4,000 feet, search out and devour giant squid in the complete darkness and return to the surface in time to breathe again.

It is questions like these that lured lastnight's audience members, most of whom were eitherunder age 6 or over age 60.

Ellis has "the ability to synthesize andcommunicate in ways that are both rigorous andengaging," said Joshua P. Basseches, executivedirector of the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Carolyn J. Bishop said she found giant squid tobe "a fascinating subject" and that "it was apleasure to go to the source" for information.

Museum lectures are a wonderful learningexperience "for someone who doesn't find sciencein formally taught classes accessible," saidCambridge resident Pamela M. Banks.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History hostsguest speakers bi-monthly during the academicyear

It is questions like these that lured lastnight's audience members, most of whom were eitherunder age 6 or over age 60.

Ellis has "the ability to synthesize andcommunicate in ways that are both rigorous andengaging," said Joshua P. Basseches, executivedirector of the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Carolyn J. Bishop said she found giant squid tobe "a fascinating subject" and that "it was apleasure to go to the source" for information.

Museum lectures are a wonderful learningexperience "for someone who doesn't find sciencein formally taught classes accessible," saidCambridge resident Pamela M. Banks.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History hostsguest speakers bi-monthly during the academicyear