The vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) looks like a creature straight out of a science fiction film: eight arms joined by a membrane that resembles a cloak or a spiderweb and two enormous eyes, which can appear red or blue depending on the light. But don’t let the name fool you: it doesn’t suck blood like Count Dracula, but feeds on organic debris. It is actually a small abyssal mollusc of approx 30 centimeterstotally harmless to humans, which represents the evolutionary interface between octopuses And calamari. This creature lives in the darkness of temperate and tropical seas, at depths ranging from 600 and 900 metersand its evolutionary history was recently clarified thanks to a study published in the journal iScience.
His name means “vampire squid of Hell”, yet there is a double deception: he is not a vampire and, to be honest, he is not even a full-fledged squid. In fact, it belongs to an order all its own, i Vampyromorphaand is considered a perfect example of “living fossil“. This expression indicates those current species that are almost identical to their fossil ancestors from millions of years ago, maintaining an appearance that seems “frozen” in time despite the millennia that have passed. Examples include horseshoe crabs and the nautilus – marine molluscs characterized by multi-chambered shells.
The analysis of DNA confirmed this stability, revealing that its genome has preserved its ancestral organization much better than its modern “cousins”. octopuses And calamari. The study conducted by a team of Japanese and Austrian researchers helped shed light on the family tree of these species: over 300 million years agothe streets divided into two large groups, i Decapodiformes to ten arms and the Octopodiformes with eight arms. The genome of Vampyroteuthis infernalis holds a record, it is the largest ever codified among all cephalopods. Count beyond 11 billion base pairs (we humans have “only” 3 billion). Yet more proof that the complexity of an organism does not depend on the quantity of its DNA.
It was initially classified as an octopus because, just like the latter, it lacks the two long tentacles that squid usually have in addition to the eight arms. The vampire squid is actually an evolutionary puzzle that has mixed characteristics of both groups.
As we said, it is not a blood predator: it feeds on organic debris and zooplanktonthe so-called “marine snow”. Unlike octopuses, however, it does not have an ink sac or the ability to change color, the latter would be a useless strategy in the total darkness of the abyss. When threatened, it expels a cloud of bioluminescent, sticky mucus to confuse predators and sometimes even animals. ROVthe underwater robots that explore the seabed. His red-blue eyes, with a diameter of 2.5cmare the largest in proportion to the body of the entire animal kingdom.
