Giant Squid

Meet Elizabeth Musteen, the scientist you heard featured on the Podcast of Life Giant Squid episode. We asked her a few questions about her work. Do you have a question you'd like answered? Submit your question here!

Where do you work?

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Office of Exhibits

What do you study?

As a project manager in the Office of Exhibits, I supervise the creation of permanent exhibits from the conceptual design stage through construction and opening day.

What are three titles you would give yourself?

Wanna-be gourmet, problem-solver, mom

What do you like to do when you are not working?

During the design phase of an exhibit, I spend a lot of time watching how visitors interact with various items in existing exhibits. When we begin construction, I am on the construction site almost all day, every day.

What do you like most about science?

I never know what to expect! I’ve gotten to hold the Hope Diamond during work on the Geology, Gems and Minerals exhibit; I’ve sewn up a giraffe skin during work on the Behring Mammals Hall, tried to work with butterflies flying all around me during the co-evolution exhibit with the Butterfly Pavilion and handled a giant squid while working on the Sant Ocean Hall. I never have a “regular” day at the office!

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Here you will find intriguing extras our producers weren't able to fit into the Giant Squid podcast:

Audio Extras and Podcast Challenge

Listen to students describing what one of our upcoming species looks like. While you are listening, use their descriptions to draw pictures of what you’re imagining. Once you are finished, send us your picture by email or in the mail.

It looks like a round sphere with holes in it....

It looks like a spaceship...

It looks squishy...

Image Gallery

Pictures of the installation of the Giant Squid at the Sant Ocean Hall in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington,DC, USA.

Click on the thumbnails for a larger view and description.

Cool Giant Squid Facts:

Giant Squid are thought to have inspired some accounts of the legendary sea monster called the Kraken. Norwegian fisherman actually considered the monster good for fishing; when they hauled up a big catch, they would say “You must have been fishing on Kraken.”

The main predator of the Giant Squid is the Sperm Whale. The whale almost always wins, but the squid doesn’t surrender easily: Sperm Whale specimens have been recovered showing scars from the squid’s suckered tentacles. And researchers have recovered the hard, indigestible beaks of 19 different squid species from beached whales!

The eyeball of an Architeuthis dux can be the size of a beachball.

Giant Squid Links:

No one had ever filmed a live Giant Squid until 2005, when two Japanese scientists observed one using a robotic camera. The squid was 3000 feet below the surface off the Ogasawara Islands of Japan. An image gallery can be found here.

In 2009, photographer Tony Wu captured rare images of a pod of Sperm Whales (Physter Linnaeus) diving for Giant Squid. They speculate that the female, shown with a squid in her jaws, may have been teaching her calf how to hunt. See the pictures here.

The Museum of New Zealand has a nice website devoted to their own giant cephalopod, the Colossal Squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). You can learn more about squid anatomy on their site, and even design and “release” a squid of your own design.

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