We've Been Wrong About the Colossal Squid for 100 Years

The colossal squid is the largest invertebrate on Earth — a thousand-pound deep-sea monster with the biggest eyes of any animal that has ever lived, rotating hooks, and blue blood. Yet in over a hundred years, almost no one has ever seen a living one. This is the story of the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni): how it was discovered in 1925 from two arms in a sperm whale's stomach, what its alien anatomy reveals about life in the deep ocean, its hidden war with the sperm whale a mile beneath the Southern Ocean, and the first-ever footage of a living colossal squid, captured in 2025.