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
Giant squid size—long a subject of both popular debate and academic inquiry (Ellis, 1998b; Paxton, 2016a, b; Bittel, 2016; Romanov "et al.", 2017)—has often been misreported and exaggerated. Reports of specimens reaching or even exceeding in total length are widespread, but no animals approaching this size have been scientifically documented in recent times, despite the hundreds of specimens available for study. The "Thimble Tickle specimen" (#46) reported by Verrill (1880a:191) is often cited as the largest giant squid ever recorded, and the specimen described by Kirk (1888) as "Architeuthis longimanus" (#62)—a strangely proportioned animal that has been much commented on—is sometimes cited as the "longest" (O'Shea & Bolstad, 2008; Paxton, 2016a). It is now thought likely that such lengths were achieved by great lengthening of the two long feeding tentacles, analogous to stretching elastic bands, or resulted from inadequate measurement methods such as pacing (O'Shea & Bolstad, 2008; Dery, 2013; Roper & Shea, 2013:113; Hanlon & Messenger, 2018:267).