The presumed adult stage of
Magnapinna is known only from video observations from submersibles, deep sea oil rig cameras, and remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs); no physical specimens have yet been collected, leaving their exact identity unknown. These individuals and the collected juvenile specimens share the large fins and the vermiform arm tips with no suckers, but the iconic elongated arm tips are known only from the presumed adult individuals. Although it has not been directly confirmed whether these squid are the same as the
Magnapinna known from specimens, it is largely accepted that they are members of Magnapinnidae. Although observations had been made over a decade earlier, adult bigfin squid only became known to science in 2001, when marine biology student Heather Holston sent footage of what she described as a "21-foot-long squid" to
teuthologist Michael Vecchione. The footage had been recorded from an ROV in the
Gulf of Mexico in January 2000 at the request of Holston's boyfriend Eric Leveton, who planned on showing it to her. Leveton was a structural engineer aboard the oil-drilling ship
Millennium Explorer, who had happened to look into the ROV operation shack when the squid was observed by operators. Although Vecchione initially surmised from Holston's description that the footage might be the first video of a live
giant squid (
Architeuthis dux), he realized that the video itself portrayed a completely different squid that had no known identity. Further discussions with other cephalopod researchers found no leads on the identity of the squid, and it was thus dubbed the "mystery squid" for a portion of time. Analysis by Vecchione
et al of previous footage from submersibles found other video records of bigfin squid, the earliest from 1988. Around the same time, new high-quality footage of a bigfin squid was also recorded off
Hawaii by the
ROV Tiburon. In December 2001, Vecchione
et al published a paper collating these observations; this was also the first paper to identify them as potential members of the Magnapinnidae, which had been named by Vecchione from the juvenile specimens a few years earlier. Independent of Vecchione's publication, Guerra
et al published a paper the following year analyzing some of the early bigfin squid footage, and also identified them as potential adult magnapinnids. Viewing close-ups of the body and head, the fins appear to be extremely large, being proportionately nearly as big as those of bigfin squid larvae. While they do appear similar to the larvae, no specimens or samples of the adults have been taken. While their exact identity is unknown, all of the discovered specimens can be observed to have a beige-colored body, translucent fins, near-white tentacles, and dark eyes.
Observation timeline The first visual record of an adult bigfin squid was in September 1988. The crew of the
submersible Nautile encountered a bigfin squid off the coast of northern
Brazil, , at a depth of . In July 1992, the
Nautile again encountered these creatures, observing two individuals during a dive off the coast of
Ghana at , first at depth and then again at . Both were filmed and photographed. In November 1998, the Japanese crewed submersible
Shinkai 6500 filmed another bigfin squid in the Indian Ocean south of
Mauritius, at and . Eric Leveton's video, which was later shared with Vecchione, was taken from the
remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) of the oil-drilling ship
Millennium Explorer in January 2000, at
Mississippi Canyon in the
Gulf of Mexico () at , and allowed for a size estimate. By comparison with the visible parts of the ROV, the squid was estimated to measure with arms fully extended. These were taken in the Pacific Ocean north of
Oʻahu,
Hawaii (), at . This video and the pre-2001 videos (which had not previously received much scientific attention) were documented by Vecchione
et al in a paper that year, and some of the earlier footage was further analyzed by Guerra
et al (2002). '' in 2012 Observations of bigfin squid were made in the
Great Australian Bight during towed camera and ROV surveys in 2015 and 2017, respectively. In March 2021, during the expedition to document the wreck of the
USS Johnston, the submersible
DSV Limiting Factor recorded footage of a juvenile bigfin squid from the
Philippine Trench at a depth of . This is the deepest observation of any squid and rivalled only by some unidentified
cirrate octopods from the same habitat as the deepest observation of any cephalopod. This makes
Magnapinna the first squid known to inhabit the
hadal zone. The squid was found at a depth of .
ROV SuBastian of
Schmidt Ocean Institute observed a bigfin squid in close proximity to a black smoker-type
hydrothermal vent on 4 April 2023, during the In Search of Hydrothermal Lost Cities expedition. The squid was seen at a depth of .
List Date - Dates are given to the level of precision available from the source material - telemetry displayed is used for observations where an ROV video is the primary source
Observer - Corresponds either to the person who collected the specimen; the vessel the specimen was collected on, or the vessel that observed the specimen for video-only observations.
Location - Given in latitude/longitude when available, otherwise the general region is given. For ROV dives with navigation data available, a link to the corresponding dive track is given, unless a more precise location is specified by a secondary source. Some coordinates from commercial ROVs are specified via UTM rather than latitude/longitude.
Depth - Supplied based on precision available from collection method for physical specimens; otherwise, telemetry from ROV observations is used. } || N/A || M. atlantica holotype || || N/A || Captured at Discovery station 13198 #7 || || 2340m || Shinkai 6500 Dive 460 Cruise YK98-08 MODE'98 Leg4 - Atlantis II Fracture Zone - || || 2195m || ROV operating from Millenium Explorer || || 2576m || Gimnaut expedition, RV Atalante supporting || || 1940m ||
RV Atlantis supporting DSV Alvin, WHOI cruise AT3-58 || || 3380m ||
RV Western Flyer supporting ROV Tiburon Hawaii Cruise || || 2586m || KAIKO Dive 208 Cruise KR01-12_leg2 || || 3890m || KAIKO Dive 215 Cruise KR01-12_leg2 || || 2750m || Discoverer Deep Seas supporting ROV
Hercules 8 || || 3050m || Discoverer Deep Seas supporting ROV
Hercules 8 || || N/A || Bergen Museum MAR-ECO cruise super station 46, local station 374 || ||
RV Atlantis AT15-03 Dive 4195, subadult male || || 1000-2000m || Cruise ANT XXIV-4 || || 2500m ||
Shell Perdido, Alaminos Canyon Block 857 || || 200-600m || Collected by MOC10 net sampling during M/V Meg Skansi cruise MS8 as part of DEEPEND-RESTORE || || 1961m || NOAA Okeanos Explorer EX2012 Leg3 Dive 13 || || 1578.4m || || Unpublished Serpent Project || 1784m || || Unpublished Serpent Project || 2388m || OCS Study BOEM 2020-022 || || 2278m || OCS Study BOEM 2020-022 || || 4708m || RV Thomas G. Thompson TN309, HADES || || 1687m || Nautilus Expedition NA043 || || 2317m || OCS Study BOEM 2020-022 || || 2178m || RV Investigator || || 2110m || RV Investigator || || 3664m ||
Pourquoi Pas? || || 1884m || Old Purple Angel Well || || 3060m || REM Etive || || 3002m || REM Etive || || 3056m || REM Etive || || 2294.20m || Gorgon 1 Well || || 100-200m || Pelagic trawl || || 2092m || ROV SuBastian Dive 295, Necker Ridge: Bridge or Barrier || || 3000m || ROV SuBastian Dive 312, The Great Australian Deep-sea Coral and Canyon Adventure || || 6212m || || || 3000m || INDEX 2021, supporting RV Pelagia || || || Dive 10, Windows to the Deep 2:56:25 || || 1931m || ROV SuBastian Dive 501, In Search of Lost Hydrothermal Cities || || 3300m || Tonga Trench Expedition || ==See also==