the vampire squid can extend from a slit on each side 

 a blunt projection 1 inch long, ending in a brilliant 

 reflector suggesting those set along highways to 

 glow a warning as each car's headlights approach. 

 How they are used in the intense blackness of the 

 abysses may eventually be learned. 



The vampire squid itself is bedecked with light- 

 producing organs of many shapes and sizes. Only the 

 mouth and surrounding surfaces of the arms and 

 webs are devoid of luminous spots. Vcunpyroteiilhis 

 may stalk its prey behind a black cloak of webbing 

 stretched by tentacles ready to seize and hold. Or it 

 may vanish from view by turning off its lights and 

 pulling the silvery reflectors into the pockets from 

 which they were extruded. 



This strange little octopus-squid, linking two types 

 of cephalopods, has been caught in the depths of 

 most oceans, seemingly so far from the surface and 

 the bottom (as well as from shores of any kind) that 

 it is a truly pelagic creature. In its wandering life it is 

 merely a deeper counterpart of the paper nautilus, 

 Argonaiita argo, a drifting denizen of the Atlantic 

 and Pacific. The paper nautilus takes its name from 

 the parchment-thin shell the 8-inch female secretes 

 from the expanded ends of her two upper arms. 



For many years, people familiar with the sea be- 

 lieved that the argonaut sat in her shell and raised 

 her expanded arms as a sail, drifting before the 

 wind. Now her ways are better understood. The shell 

 is only a floating, boat-shaped egg case with a single 

 compartment. It is not a product of her mantle and 

 hence is not comparable to the true shell of a cham- 

 bered nautilus. 



The argonaut's shell may be as much as 8 inches 

 long, but it has no known role except as a place of 

 security for the young. The parent is free to leave it 

 or return to it, swimming smoothly along as a com- 

 pletely independent little octopus. Her mate is much 

 smaller (about 1 inch in length) and lacks the ex- 

 pansions on the upper arms. But he does contribute 

 his share to the family venture: the tip of his hecto- 

 cotylized arm, holding a supply of sperms for his 

 mate to use when her fragile bark is ready. 



when swimming, the octopus (Octopus) holds its 

 eight arms close together and drives itself along by 

 jet propulsion. The suckers on its tentacles are at- 

 tached directly to the arms, not borne on short stalks 

 as in squids and cuttlefishes. (Fritz Goro: Life Maga- 

 zine) 



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