The Vampire Squid Is Neither a True Squid Nor an Octopus

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The vampire squid looks like something assembled from several different deep-sea creatures, but it belongs to its own evolutionary group. Despite its name, it is not a true squid or an octopus, although its closest living relatives are octopuses. It is the only known surviving member of the order Vampyromorphida. Its body is built for life in dark, oxygen-poor ocean water. It has eight webbed arms, two retractable filaments, and remarkably large eyes. A small animal can have eyes around an inch across, giving it an unusually large eye-to-body ratio. Those large eyes are thought to help it detect faint light and movement across the nearly featureless deep ocean. The name sounds more frightening than the animal actually is. Vampire squid do not drink blood. They mostly feed on drifting organic material, including marine snow and the remains of small ocean organisms. Their unusual feeding style suits an environment where food can be scarce and scattered. Their strangest trick appears when they are seriously disturbed. Instead of producing ordinary ink, the vampire squid can release a cloud of glowing, sticky mucus filled with tiny points of blue light. The display can distract a predator, while the sticky material may cling to the attacker and make it easier for another predator to notice. This gives the squid a remarkable way to turn an attack into a potential problem for its attacker. The animal also has other defenses, including flashing light-producing organs and a posture that makes its glowing arm tips more prominent. Even with these adaptations, vampire squid are still eaten by larger deep-water animals. Their combination of extreme habitat, unusual anatomy, enormous eyes, and luminous defenses makes them one of the more unusual members of the cephalopod family.