{"id":30077,"date":"2026-04-06T03:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T08:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/?p=30077"},"modified":"2026-04-06T03:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T08:19:13","slug":"it-all-began-with-a-strange-squid-like-mass-found-in-the-stomach-of-a-sperm-whale-in-1955-and-1956-and-decades-later-scientists-discovered-that-it-was-something-far-stranger-than-anyone-could-have","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/it-all-began-with-a-strange-squid-like-mass-found-in-the-stomach-of-a-sperm-whale-in-1955-and-1956-and-decades-later-scientists-discovered-that-it-was-something-far-stranger-than-anyone-could-have\/30077\/","title":{"rendered":"It all began with a strange, squid-like mass found in the stomach of a sperm whale in 1955 and 1956, and decades later, scientists discovered that it was something far stranger than anyone could have imagined"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you picture a new species discovery, you might imagine a submarine camera<\/a> or a deep-sea net coming up from the dark. This one began with a preserved lump of squid pulled from a sperm whale\u2019s stomach in the mid-1950s. It sat for decades, mislabeled and easy to overlook, like a forgotten file in the back of a cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the animal has a name, Mobydickia poseidonii<\/a>, and it is not just a new species. It is different enough to earn its own squid family and a spot on the World Register of Marine Species<\/a> \u201cTop Ten Remarkable Marine Species of 2025\u201d list released on March 19, 2026, part of a year when the registry logged almost 2,600 newly described marine species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A jar that changed the squid family tree<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The recheck was led by Sam Arnold and Fernando \u00c1ngel Fern\u00e1ndez-\u00c1lvarez at the Institute of Marine Sciences of Spain\u2019s National Research Council<\/a> in Barcelona, where the team works with preserved marine specimens. The researchers traced the squid back to material collected between 1955 and 1956, a period when commercial whaling operations still removed sperm whales from the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Read More: Scientists claim to have discovered a universal rule that \u201clinks\u201d evolution and works in the same way in bacteria, plants, reptiles, fish, and insects<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The specimen spent years in the reference collection of the late cephalopod researcher Malcolm Clarke before it was deposited at the Natural History Museum<\/a> in London and treated as part of the sharp-ear enope squid, Ancistrocheirus lesueurii. The team said, \u201cThe morphology of this specimen was so radically different from any previously described squid that the creation of a new family was inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes Poseidon\u2019s squid stand out<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When scientists describe an animal, they often start with morphology, meaning its visible structure and body parts. In this case, the preserved squid showed a pale, gelatin-like body with little to no pigment, plus arm hooks shaped in a way that reminds researchers of a trident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Read More: Scientists have discovered that Earth\u2019s \u201cgreen pole\u201d has been shifting northeastward for decades and that, since 2010, this shift has accelerated much more than expected<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

It also lacks the glowing light organs many people associate with deep-sea creatures, which makes it stand out even more in its group. So far, it is known from just a single individual linked to Antarctic waters<\/a>, which is part of why its \u201creal\u201d identity stayed hidden for so long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new species and a new family<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Biologists sort life into nested groups, and the word \u201cfamily\u201d is higher up than \u201cgenus\u201d and \u201cspecies.\u201d Creating a new family is a signal that a creature is not simply a new version of something familiar, but a separate branch with its own deep history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Read More: NASA is once again highlighting an image taken on July 3, 2025, from the ISS that looks like something out of a movie: a \u201cgigantic jet\u201d that doesn\u2019t fall to Earth, but instead shoots out of a storm and rises to a height of nearly 100 kilometers<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

For this squid, that new family name is Mobydickidae, built around the newly described genus and species. In plain terms, it is like realizing an animal is not just a new kind of cat, but something closer to discovering a whole new cat family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why the squid was misclassified for decades<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The new research was part of a larger effort to untangle a confusing set of deep-water squids that can look very similar. The paper describes \u201ccryptic species,\u201d meaning separate species that appear almost identical to the eye, which can turn identification into a long game of detective work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also a practical problem. Oceanic squids<\/a> are soft-bodied, often damaged in nets, and specimens recovered from predator stomachs may be partly digested, so key features can be missing right when scientists need them most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How a sperm whale helped do the collecting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sperm whales<\/a> do not just hunt deep. They hunt where most human tools struggle, and that matters for what ends up in their stomachs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Read More: Crows outperform monkeys in an intelligence test that until now was believed to be exclusive to humans<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/a> says these whales routinely dive to around 2,000 feet and can stay down for about 45 minutes while searching for food like squid. In other words, one whale can sample parts of the ocean that a research ship might never reach on a normal day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What stomach contents can reveal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Scientists have a long history of learning about deep-sea life<\/a> from what predators eat, especially when the prey is hard to capture intact. Squid beaks are tough, and they can survive digestion long enough for researchers to sort and identify them later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 1998 study<\/a> in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom described how beaks from stranded toothed whales can be counted and matched to squid groups to map diets and ecosystems. That approach is not perfect, but for the deep ocean, it can be one of the few windows that regularly opens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why this discovery matters now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This find is a reminder that biodiversity research is not only about new expeditions. It is also about rechecking what is already stored, comparing it carefully, and being willing to admit that an old label may be wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Read More: NASA detects a 500-million-year pattern between Earth’s magnetic \u201cshield\u201d and oxygen in the air… and the question posed by the article is crazy<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

It also shows how much of the deep sea is still \u201coff the map<\/a>\u201d for science, even in groups as well-studied as squid. What else is sitting in a jar, waiting for a second look?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main study has been published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you picture a new species discovery, you might imagine a submarine camera or a deep-sea net coming up from … <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":30078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30077"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30477,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30077\/revisions\/30477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoticias.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}