Colossal squid
The largest recorded specimen was captured in 2007 by a New Zealand fishing boat off Antarctica. It was initially estimated to measure in length and weigh . The squid was taken back to New Zealand for scientific study. A study on the specimen later showed its actual weight was , but it only measured in total length as a result of the tentacles' shrinking "post mortem".
List of giant squid specimens and sightings
The giant squid's existence was established beyond doubt only in the 1870s, with the appearance of an extraordinary number of complete specimens—both dead and alive—in Newfoundland waters (beginning with #21; Earle, 1977; McConvey, 2015). These were meticulously documented in a series of papers by Yale zoologist Addison Emery Verrill (Coe, 1929:36; G.E. Verrill, 1958:69). The earliest known photographs of the giant squid were of two of these Newfoundland specimens, both from 1873: first a single severed tentacle—hacked off a live animal as it "attacked" a fishing boat (#28; Murray, 1874b:121)—and weeks later an intact animal in two parts (#29); the head and limbs of this latter specimen were famously shown draped over the sponge bath of Moses Harvey, a local clergyman, essayist, and amateur naturalist (Aldrich, 1987:109; Frank, 2014). Harvey secured and reported widely on both of these important specimens—as well as numerous others—and it was largely through his efforts that giant squid became known to North American and British zoologists (Aldrich, 1987:115). Recognition of "Architeuthis" as a real animal led to the reappraisal of earlier reports of gigantic tentacled sea creatures, with some of these subsequently being accepted as records of giant squid, the earliest stretching back to at least the 17th century (Ellis, 1994a:379, 1998a:257; Sweeney & Roper, 2001:[27]).