Pen and wash drawing by malacologist Pierre Dénys de Montfort, 1801, from the descriptions of French sailors reportedly attacked by such a creature off the coast of Angola

Carcass that washed ashore in St. Augustine in 1896

Dénys de Montfort's "Poulpe Colossal" attacks a merchant ship.

Imaginary view of a gigantic octopus seizing a ship.

An unknown species of gigantic octopus has been hypothesised as a source of reports of sea monsters such as the lusca and the kraken as well as the ultimate source of some of the carcasses of unidentified origin known as globsters like the St. Augustine carcass. The species that the St. Augustine carcass supposedly represented has been assigned the binomial names "Octopus giganteus" (Latin: giant octopus)^[1] and "Otoctopus giganteus" (Greek prefix: oton = ear; giant-eared octopus),^[2] although these are not valid under the rules of the ICZN. Image File history File links An alleged colossal octopus drawn in 1801 by French malacologist Pierre Denys de Montfort from the descriptions of French sailors reportedly attacked by such a creature outside the coast of Angola. ... Image File history File links An alleged colossal octopus drawn in 1801 by French malacologist Pierre Denys de Montfort from the descriptions of French sailors reportedly attacked by such a creature outside the coast of Angola. ... Classes Caudofoveata Aplacophora Polyplacophora - Chitons Monoplacophora Bivalvia - Bivalves Scaphopoda - Tusk shells Gastropoda - Snails and Slugs Cephalopoda - Squids, Octopuses, etc. ... Pierre Dénys de Montfort (1766 - 1820) was a French naturalist, remembered today for his pioneering inquiries into the existence of the Giant Squid Archeteuthis, which was thought to be an old wives tale, and for which he was long dismissed. ... Image File history File links St_augustine_carcass. ... Image File history File links St_augustine_carcass. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1106x713, 451 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Kraken Gigantic octopus ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1106x713, 451 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Kraken Gigantic octopus ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1047x677, 508 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Kraken Scandinavian folklore Gigantic octopus ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1047x677, 508 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Kraken Scandinavian folklore Gigantic octopus ... Carcass that washed ashore in St. ... For other uses, see Kraken (disambiguation). ... Carcass that washed ashore near St. ... The carcass as it appeared after being dug out of the sand. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is a standard convention used for naming species. ... For other uses, see Latins and Latin (disambiguation). ... A prefix is the initial portion of some object or term (typically in text or speech) with a distinct and he base semantics for a word. ... The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a set of rules in zoology that have one fundamental aim: to provide the maximum universality and continuity in classifying all animals according to taxonomic judgment. ...

They are not to be confused with the known giant octopus, which is a member of the scientifically defined genus, Enteroctopus, and grows to about thirty feet in arm spread. The colossal octopus is assumed to be much larger. It is possible that some deep water cirrate octopodes such as Haliphron atlanticus reach sizes such that they might be considered gigantic. Giant Octopus may refer to the following: Octopuses of the genus Enteroctopus Colossal Octopus or lusca, a cryptid This is a disambiguation page — a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Species Enteroctopus dofleini Enteroctopus juttingi Enteroctopus magnificus Enteroctopus megalocyathus Enteroctopus membranaceus Enteroctopus zealandicus Enteroctopus is a genus many of whose members are sometimes known as giant octopus. ... Families 14 in two suborders, see text. ... Binomial name Steenstrup, 1861 Synonyms Alloposus mollis Verrill, 1880 ?Octopus alberti Joubin, 1895 Alloposus pacificus Ijima & Ikeda, 1902 Heptapus danai Joubin, 1929 Alloposus hardyi Robson, 1930 ?Alloposina albatrossi Robson, 1932 The Seven-arm Octopus (Haliphron atlanticus) is the largest known species of octopus based on scientific records, with a total...

History

In 1802, however, the French malacologist Pierre Denys de Montfort in Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques, an encyclopedic description of mollusks, recognized the existence of two kinds of giant octopus. One being the kraken octopus, which Denys de Montfort believed had been described not only by Norwegian sailors and American whalers, but also by ancient writers such as Pliny the Elder. The second one being the much larger colossal octopus (the one actually depicted by the image) which reportedly attacked a sailing vessel from Saint-Malo off the coast of Angola. Classes Caudofoveata Aplacophora Polyplacophora - Chitons Monoplacophora Bivalvia - Bivalves Scaphopoda - Tusk shells Gastropoda - Snails and Slugs Cephalopoda - Squids, Octopuses, etc. ... Pierre Dénys de Montfort (1766 - 1820) was a French naturalist, remembered today for his pioneering inquiries into the existence of the Giant Squid Archeteuthis, which was thought to be an old wives tale, and for which he was long dismissed. ... Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19th Century portrait. ... Categories: France geography stubs | Communes of Ille-et-Vilaine ...

A gigantic octopus has been proposed as an identity for the large carcass, known as the St. Augustine Monster, that washed up in St Augustine, Florida in 1896. However, samples of this specimen subjected to electron microscopy and biochemical analysis were found to be "masses of virtually pure collagen" and not to have the "biochemical characteristics of invertebrate collagen, nor the collagen fiber arrangement of octopus mantle". The results suggest the samples are "large pieces of vertebrate skin ... from a huge homeotherm".^[3] The carcass as it appeared after being dug out of the sand. ... Five flags have flown over the city since 1565. ... The electron microscope is a microscope that can magnify very small details with high resolving power due to the use of electrons rather than light to scatter off material, magnifying at levels up to 500,000 times. ... Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry of life, a bridge between biology and chemistry that studies how complex chemical reactions and chemical structures give rise to life. ... A warm-blooded (homeothermic) animal is one that can keep its core body temperature at a nearly constant level regardless of the temperature of the surrounding environment (that is, to maintain thermal homeostasis) . This can involve not only the ability to generate heat, but also the ability to cool down...

Regional names for colossal octopus

• "Giant Scuttle" - Bahamas
• "Lusca" - Caribbean
• "Rogu-tomu"? - Tahiti

[--168. ... West Indies redirects here. ... Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of the French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. ...

See also

• St. Augustine Monster
• Lusca
• Cryptozoology
• Scandinavian folklore
• Sea monster
• Giant squid
• Colossal Squid

The carcass as it appeared after being dug out of the sand. ... Carcass that washed ashore in St. ... Cryptozoology (from Greek: κρυπτός, kryptós, hidden; ζῷον, zôon, animal; and λόγος, logos, knowledge or study – zoology) is the search for animals hypothesized to exist, but for which conclusive proof is missing. ... Scandinavian folklore is the folklore of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the Swedish speaking parts of Finland. ... For the television series about extinct sea animals, see Sea Monsters. ... This article is about the animal. ... Binomial name Robson, 1925 The Colossal Squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), sometimes called the Antarctic or Giant Cranch Squid, is believed to be the largest squid species. ...

References

1. ^ Verrill, A.E. 1897. Additional information concerning the giant Cephalopod of Florida. American Journal of Science 4th series 3: 162-163.
2. ^ Raynal, M. 1987. Le poulpe colossal des Caraïbes. Le Clin d'Œil, Nice, 16: 21-25. (French)
3. ^ Pierce, S., G. Smith, T. Maugel & E. Clark 1995. On the Giant Octopus (Octopus giganteus) and the Bermuda Blob: Homage to A. E. Verrill. Biol. Bull. 188: 219-230.

• Heuvelmans, B. The Kraken and the Colossal Octopus (2003) Kegan Paul. London.