Capturing video of a giant squid in its natural habitat took time, teamwork and cutting-edge technology. The scientists had to put them selves in the shoes (tentacles?) of a giant squid to figure out why past missions had failed. Oceanographer Edith Widder realized that the remotely operated vehicles researchers had used in the past were very loud and suggested a quieter method of filming in the deep. This ultimately enabled the team to capture video of this behemoth creature for the first time. You can watch the extraordinary footage in this TED Talk, and hear form Dr. Widder to learn more about how she and the team made their discovery.

Giant and colossal squids are not the only tentacled giants of the deep. In just the past few years, scientists discovered a huge squid living in the ocean's hadal zone- in other words, the area inside deep sea trenches. This creature, called the bigfin squid, is bizarre looking, with extremely sticky suckers on its arms and tentacles. They are so sticky, in fact, that its limbs are jointed to keep them held apart so the appendages don't get stuck together like pieces of spaghetti. In this video from NOAA, you can see footage of a bigfin squid and hear from Mike Vecchione, one of the scientists who first described it.

There are a few hundred species of squid, and they live in all the world's oceans. That makes them a reliable food source for many ocean predators. As you now know, even the giant squid needs to watch its back! It's hunted by another ocean giant- the sperm whale! Squids use many ingenious methods to avoid being eaten. In this TED-Ed video, explore some of these bizarre adaptation, like the ability to change color at a moment's notice.

One particularly useful squid adaptation is called jet propulsion, which allows squids to swim very quickly. But some squids use jet propulsion not to swim but to fly! In this video from TED-Ed learn how some squids take to the sky.

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