Deep-sea squid can break off all its arms onto an enemy

If you grew up on a diet of 1980s cartoons, as I did, you will have seen many a giant robot shoot many a rocket-propelled fist into many a big monster. Sadly, there are no rocket punches in the real world, but I can give you the next best thing: a squid that can grabs its enemies with flashing, writhing, self-amputating arms. The squid in question is Octopoteuthis deletron, a beautiful red animal with hook-lined arms, which grows to around five inches in length. I’ve written about it before – the males have a tendency to indiscriminately implant members of both sexes with sperm. [embed width="610"]http://youtu.be/-SxLl6Sj6s0[/embed] Stephanie Bush from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has been studying the squid for the last decade. She used remotely operated underwater vehicles to film 84 of them, and reviewed archival footage of 21 more individuals. The squids normally have eight arms that ...