Gigantic octopus
Encyclopedia
An unknown species of gigantic octopus has been hypothesised as a source of reports of sea monster
Sea monster
Sea monsters are sea-dwelling mythical or legendary creatures, often believed to be of immense size.Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or multi-armed beasts. They can be slimy or scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water...

s such as the lusca
Lusca
The lusca is a name given to a sea monster reported from the Caribbean. It has been suggested by cryptozoologists that the lusca is a gigantic octopus, far larger than the known giant octopuses of the genus Enteroctopus.-Sightings:...

 and the kraken
Kraken
Kraken are legendary sea monsters of giant proportions said to have dwelt off the coasts of Norway and Iceland.In modern German, Krake means octopus but can also refer to the legendary Kraken...

 as well as the source of some of the carcasses of unidentified origin known as globster
Globster
A globster, or blob, is an unidentified organic mass that washes up on the shoreline of an ocean or other body of water. The term was coined by Ivan T. Sanderson in 1962 to describe the Tasmanian carcass of 1960, which was said to have "no visible eyes, no defined head, and no apparent bone...

s like the St. Augustine Monster
St. Augustine Monster
The St. Augustine Monster is the name given to a large unidentified carcass, originally postulated to be the remains of a gigantic octopus, that washed ashore on the United States coast near St. Augustine, Florida, in 1896. It is sometimes referred to as the Florida Monster or St. Augustine Giant...

. The species that the St. Augustine carcass supposedly represented has been assigned the binomial names "Octopus giganteus" and "Otoctopus giganteus" (Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 prefix
Prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...

: oton = ear; giant-eared octopus), although these are not valid under the rules of the ICZN
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals...

.

They are not to be confused with the known giant octopus
Giant octopus
Enteroctopus is an octopus genus, many of whose members are sometimes known as giant octopuses.- Description :Enteroctopus is a genus of generally temperate octopuses. Members of the genus Enteroctopus are characterized by their large size and are often known as the giant octopuses...

, which is a member of the scientifically defined genus, Enteroctopus, which can supposedly grow to an arm spread length of almost thirty feet, or 9 metres. The gigantic octopus is assumed to be much larger.
It is possible that some deep water cirrate octopodes such as Haliphron atlanticus reach sizes such that they might be considered gigantic.

History

In 1802, the French malacologist Pierre Denys de Montfort
Pierre Denys de Montfort
Pierre Denys de Montfort, also sometimes spelled "Pierre Dénys de Montfort", was a French naturalist, in particular a malacologist, remembered today for his pioneering inquiries into the existence of the giant squid Architeuthis, which was thought to be an old wives' tale, and for which he was...

 in Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques, an encyclopedic description of mollusks, recognized the existence of two kinds of giant octopus. One being the kraken octopus, which Denys de Montfort believed had been described not only by Norwegian sailors and American whalers, but also by ancient writers such as Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

. The second one being the much larger colossal octopus (the one actually depicted by the image) which reportedly attacked a sailing vessel from Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northwestern France on the English Channel. It is a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine.-Demographics:The population can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season...

 off the coast of Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

.

A gigantic octopus has been proposed as an identity for the large carcass, known as the St. Augustine Monster
St. Augustine Monster
The St. Augustine Monster is the name given to a large unidentified carcass, originally postulated to be the remains of a gigantic octopus, that washed ashore on the United States coast near St. Augustine, Florida, in 1896. It is sometimes referred to as the Florida Monster or St. Augustine Giant...

, that washed up in St Augustine, Florida in 1896. However, samples of this specimen subjected to electron microscopy and biochemical analysis were found to be "masses of virtually pure collagen" and not to have the "biochemical characteristics of invertebrate collagen, nor the collagen fiber arrangement of octopus mantle". The results suggest the samples are "large pieces of vertebrate skin ... from a huge homeotherm
Warm-blooded
The term warm-blooded is a colloquial term to describe animal species which have a relatively higher blood temperature, and maintain thermal homeostasis primarily through internal metabolic processes...

".

See also

  • Kraken
    Kraken
    Kraken are legendary sea monsters of giant proportions said to have dwelt off the coasts of Norway and Iceland.In modern German, Krake means octopus but can also refer to the legendary Kraken...

  • Colossal Squid
    Colossal Squid
    The colossal squid , sometimes called the Antarctic or giant cranch squid, is believed to be the largest squid species in terms of mass. It is the only known member of the genus Mesonychoteuthis...

  • Cryptozoology
    Cryptozoology
    Cryptozoology refers to the search for animals whose existence has not been proven...

  • Giant squid
    Giant squid
    The giant squid is a deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae, represented by as many as eight species...

  • Lusca
    Lusca
    The lusca is a name given to a sea monster reported from the Caribbean. It has been suggested by cryptozoologists that the lusca is a gigantic octopus, far larger than the known giant octopuses of the genus Enteroctopus.-Sightings:...

  • Scandinavian folklore
    Scandinavian folklore
    Scandinavian folklore is the folklore of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the Swedish speaking parts of Finland.Collecting folklore began when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden sent out instructions to all of the priests in all of the parishes to collect the folklore of their area...

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