We seriously want to adopt this adorable purple squid
The ocean is vast and largely unknown and, honestly, a little bit scary. A common saying is that we know less about the ocean floor than we do about the surface of the moon – which is a crazy thing to think about. But it’s not all mystery and spookiness and possible sea monsters – there are some seriously incredible and adorable sea creatures out there, like the pink see-through sea cucumber or that grumpy-looking Australian blobfish that won world’s ugliest animal a few years back, but will probably have its time when it stars in a Pixar movie about the importance of friendship at some point.
The latest sea creature making us squee at the cuteness is an adorable purple squid creature discovered by scientists.
LOOK at that thing! It’s so cute and squishy and weird at the same time, with its googly-yes and translucent skin. The creature, called a “stubby squid,” was discovered off the coast of California by scientists aboard the E/V Nautilus (a scientific exploration vessel), according to CNN. Honestly, it doesn’t even look real – even the scientists, who regularly upload their footage to a dedicated YouTube channel, were fooled.
Check out the full video of the scientists happening up the stubby squid. Even they can’t resist commenting on its unusual, toy-like appearance!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEhYJEQmExE?feature=oembed
Hilariously, at the very beginning of the video, each of the scientists gasp audibly and are immediately taken with the cute lil’ guy. They wonder what it is, with a few thinking it might be a cuttlefish. One scientist jokes that it looked like Davy Jones (so accurate). Another even remarks on how fake it looks, with its googly-eyes, commenting that it’s “like some little kid dropped their toy” in the ocean.
The scientists wanted to see the creature “do something,” but it remained completely and totally motionless – backing up the “Is that thing a toy?” idea.
But nope, this cartoon character of a cephalopod is *totally* real. I’ll let the experts do the explaining, courtesy of the Nautilus Live official website:
“The stubby squid (Rossia pacifica) looks like a cross between an octopus and squid, but is more closely related to cuttlefish. This species spends life on the seafloor, activating a sticky mucus jacket and burrowing into the sediment to camouflage, leaving their eyes poking out to spot prey like shrimp and small fish.”
Interesting! So the cute googly-eyes are actually a serious survival mechanism, helping it find food. I wonder what this thing looks like in action?
Naturally, the internet had a field day with this little dude.
Some joked that it resembled a Pokemon.
Others were just in awe of the adorableness.
And still others made some very apt Cthulhu jokes. Fingers crossed that stubby squid isn’t actually an ancient creature plotting to annihilate the known world.
You can follow the E/V Nautilus’ deep sea adventures via Twitter here. They have a ~ton~ of really cool footage and write-ups of their discoveries.
