Giant Squid: Human Connections

The giant squid has captured the human imagination for more than 2,000 years. For a long time, people who spotted giant squid couldn’t figure out what they were. Were they monsters? Mermen? Rare glimpses of this huge sea creature inspired both fear and fascination. People came up with fantastic explanations for what their astonished eyes saw—or thought they saw. Movies, books, and popular lore featured encounters with huge, hungry sea creatures brandishing many tentacles. It turns out that the giant squid of myth is not a monster at all. But only since the late 19th century has enough scientific evidence accumulated to replace the myths with fact.