| Megasquid Temporal range: 200 million AD 
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Cephalopoda |
| Gallery | |
| “ | Heavier than an elephant and almost as tall, the megasquid pushes its way through the soaking vegetation, splintering conifer trunks and pulping the branches of lichen trees as it goes.
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The megasquid is a species of giant terasquid endemic to the Northern Forest on the northwestern coast of Pangaea II, in 200 million AD. Around the size of an elephant, the megasquid is both the largest land animal of its age, and the heaviest terrestrial invertebrate of all time. An opportunistic omnivore, it roams the forest feeding mainly on fruits and small animals, using its two tentacles to manipulate objects, and has no predators of its own.
Evolution
The cephalopods have been slowly adapting for life on dry land since 100 million AD, with the large Bengali swampus octopus. However, they only truly began to evolve and diversify after the 100 million AD mass extinction, which wiped out most large life-forms on earth.
With many empty ecological niches, it was the squid, not the octopuses, which evolved to be the dominant animals. The megasquid in particular appears to have evolved because of the lack of large land animals. Like the swampus, the early terasquids dragged themselves across the land, but the megasquid's ancestor eventually developed legs.
Biology
Anatomy of a megasquid.
The megasquid is four metres tall, and weighs eight tonnes. Physically, it appears to be very different to regular squid—however, save for a few differences, they are very similar to a squid, but tilted vertically.
The main body is the most like that of a squid, with a large mantle and small eyes. This mantle is porous, as air can flow through it to reach the lungs and keep the animal alive. The small brain is located just behind the eyes.
However, everything below the mantle is strange and foreign. Its eight limbs have evolved into 1/3 metre thick, column like legs, reminiscent of elephant or sauropod legs. These legs are composed entirely of circular, vertical rings of muscle. In addition, it has two tentacles at the front of its body, which are used as arms, picking up and manipulating food. Unlike the highly evolved legs, these tentacles are similar to the tentacles of a modern day squid.
Set in the very centre of this network of legs is the megasquids beak-like mouth. The anus would appear to be at the back of the animal, just under the mantle, and the location of the reproductive organs is uknown.
On the front-centre of the mantle, above the megasquid's face, is a large blue vocal sac. The megasquid uses these sacs to generate deep, booming calls for communication. The megasquids entire digestive and respiratory systems seem blended together. They breathe through their vocal sac, which is connected to the anus, suggesting that the stomach is in the same tract as the lungs. The sacs also act as a nasal passage.
The skin of a megasquid is not what one would expect from a squid—it is tough and rhinoceros-like. The skin of a megasquid is generally brown, with lighter stripes on some individuals. To keep itself from drying out, the skin of megasquid secretes some kind of liquid.[1]
Behaviour
The megasquid is a slow, omivorous animal. It will eat anything that presents itself, from lichen tree capsules, squibbon, and disguised slithersuckers. The tree capsules are commonly targeted because of their bright colour—megasquids have excellent colour vision.
Megasquid locomotion is difficult. They are very slow, and have a very specific way of walking—the front and back right legs are moved forward with the middle left legs, and then the same the other way around. If megasquid moved in any other way, they would overbalance or trip over themselves.
Megasquid can live up to a maximum of fifty years, at least partially thanks to the lack of large land predators on Pangaea II.
A megasquid browsing on swampy vegetation.
Megasquid communicate with each other via large blue vocal sacs on the forehead area of their mantles. They produce different sounds, from low grumbling or humming to a loud boom. The sounds are made when a megasquid breathes in a certain way.
Megasquid use their anterior 'arm' tentacles as hands, grabbing food with them, and generally using them as tools, for tasks such as moving obstacles.
Ecology
Megasquid are used by slithersuckers as a method of dispersal. The slithersucker tricks the megasquid into eating it, and then takes control of the giant squids central nervous system by inflaming its brain, and causes it to sneeze, sending bits of the slithersucker around the forest. This is not harmful to the megasquid.
Megasquid also eat squibbons. However, occasionally the tables are turned somewhat, and squibbons will taunt passing megasquid from the trees, throwing things at them and swinging around.
Appearances
In the documentary
In "The Tentacled Forest", a megasquid is lured in by a slithersucker in the guise of a lichen tree pod, and has its body taken over. When it reaches a tree, the slithersucker makes it sneeze, and the squid is freed. It returns to lumbering around the forest.
The megasquid soon passes under some trees, where a group of squibbons are sleeping. It manages to use its tentacles to capture a baby squibbon, and prepares to eat it. Before the wailing baby can be eaten, the squibbon family ward off the megasquid by throwing fruits and rocks at its mantle. This serves as a distraction, allowing an adult squibbon to swoop down and save the baby. The megasquid groans in anger, and moves on.
In the manga
In "Northern Forest," a megasquid attacks a squibbon colony and grabs a baby, but is driven off. The next day, it attacks again during a foggy rainstorm, and grabs another squibbon. Although it is severely harassed, pelted with objects, and even tripped up with "rope" and sent crashing into a lichen tree, it refuses to release the squibbon, which it eventually eats. It then walks off into the forest, leaving the squibbons stunned.
In the cartoon series
Major appearances
In "Sweet Home Pangaea II," Squibby is almost eaten by a megasquid, but is saved by another squibbon. Near the end of the episode, the megasquid returns again and catches Emily, but is repelled by Squibby and his new friends, three wild squibbons.
In "He Might Be Giant," a clumsy megasquid knocks a tree onto the Time Flyer, grounding it. Ethan, enlarged by the molecular compressor, encounters this megasquid, which is now about half his size, and befriends it by feeding it fruit. It follows him and, when he returns to normal size and is caught by a different megasquid, rescues him.
In "Cure For The Common Megasquid Cold," a megasquid being controlled by a slithersucker sneezes on Luis, who worries that he has caught a megasquid disease. C.G. and Ethan follow the crazed megasquid to observe it, and also end up being sneezed on.
In "Queen of the Squibbons, Part 1" and "Queen of the Squibbons, Part 2", a baby squibbon named Buzzy is orphaned in a megasquid attack and subsequently cared for by Emily, who becomes stranded in the Northern Forest. When the megasquid returns, Emily is forced to flee up a tree, where she builds a treehouse and a "megasquid detection system".
Later, when she goes down to the ground to fetch Buzzy, she is attacked by a pair of megasquid, which are harassed by Squibby and some other squibbons, allowing her to escape up a vine. The squibbons try to help by pulling the vine up, whilst the megasquids pull it down, until the vine breaks and Emily is left dangling between the megasquids. The Time Flyer finally arrives back in the Northern Forest, and is able to land next to Emily, scaring off the megasquids.
Minor appearances
A megasquid makes a cameo appearance in a flashback in "Be True to Your Crew", where CG remembers leaving the Time Flyer to observe a megasquid upon arriving in the Northern Forest, which is what leads to Squibby stowing away on the ship. The megasquid is the first future animal encountered by CG. Two megasquid also appear in the title sequence of the series.
Behind the scenes
Conception
Early concept art of the megasquid.
The megasquid was thought up by Dougal Dixon and McNeill Alexander. The idea of the megasquid came from observations of the muscles within a squids tentacles—one set for contracting, and one strong set of rings around them. It was speculated that this combination could theoretically allow a fully terrestrial, walking squid to evolve.[1]
Alexander's first calculations gave him a weight limit of only one tonne, but once he made a few plausible changes to the muscle and fibre, he realised a terrestrial squid could theoretically grow to eight tonnes.[2] Alexander said:
| “ | A thing like that presents all sorts of challenges. First of all, it has to be strong enough to stand up, because it has no skeleton. When I first did the calculations I got a mass limit of about one tonne. But in the molluscs you get some muscles that are capable of exerting extremely high stresses.
And then you have another bit of a problem. The size of the legs is limited by what you can fit in underneath the animal. It has to be able to move its legs to walk, and that means that the only gait that is going to work is going to be stable all the time; four legs move and are set down and the other four move and are set down. — McNeil Alexander
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Criticism
As with all the other squids in the series, the megasquid is a rather controversial topic (and quite possibly the most criticised species featured in The Future Is Wild). Primary arguments include the possibility that the squid would collapse under its own weight.
Some viewers also point out the Swampus came out from water 100 million years earlier belonged to Order Octopoda, while Megasquid (and Squibbon), as the decendant of squid, should belong to Order Teuthida, the two groups are very distant from each other; meanwhile octopus has more developed tentacles to walk on seabed, squid's body, on the other hand is more primitive and fragile, its direction of evolution aims the deep sea full of planktons. So even if Swampus can come into existence, squid can't follow the same path of evolution.
List of appearances
- The Future Is Wild
- The Future Is Wild: A Natural History of the Future
- The Future Is Wild (fulldome show)
- The Future Is Wild manga
- 08. Northern Forest
- The Future Is Wild animated series
- 1x10. Be True to Your Crew (cameo)
- 1x14. Sweet Home Pangaea II
- 1x21. He Might Be Giant
- 1x23. Cure For The Common Megasquid Cold
- 1x24. Queen of the Squibbons, Part 1
- 1x25. Queen of the Squibbons, Part 2
- The Future Is Wild: The Living Book
- The Future Is Wild VR
Notes
- Although the megasquid is usually shown in merchandise and promotional material with its blue vocal sac prominently visible on its mantle, the documentary shows that this area only turns blue when the megasquid vocalises.
- During the megasquid's introductory scene in "The Tentacled Forest," a second, smaller individual can be seen very briefly in the background of a single shot. The rest of the episode depicts the main megasquid as being alone.
- None of the megasquid appearing in the animated series are given names.
- Alongside the ocean flish, the megasquid is one of the most iconic and well-known animals from The Future Is Wild.
- The megasquid resembles the kaiju Gezora, which appeared in the Toho film Space Amoeba (1970). Gezora is a mutant cuttlefish which walks upright on land in a similar style to the megasquid, using its two tentacles as arms.
Gallery
In other languages
| Language | Name | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| French | Calmar géant des forêts | "Giant forest squid" |
| German | Kolosskalmar / Riesenkalmar | "Colossus squid" / "Giant squid" |
| Italian | Calamafante | Portmanteau of calamaro ("squid") and elefante ("elephant"). |
| Japanese | Megasukuido (メガスクイド) | Transcription of English name |
| Polish | Megakalmar | Same as English name |
| Portuguese | Mega lula | Same as English name |
| Russian | Megakal'mary (Мегакальмары) | Same as English name |
| Spanish | Calafante | Portmanteau of calamar ("squid") and elefante ("elephant") |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Future Is Wild UK DVD 3-disc boxset, "The Making of"
- ↑ It is AD 200 million - and the megasquid rules | UK News | The Guardian
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