Biology:Archie the giant squid
Archie the giant squid is an 8.62 meter (28.3 ft) long preserved giant squid in the London Natural History Museum Spirit Collection, as a display and as a specimen.[1] Archie is held in a custom acrylic tank filled with a 10% solution of formol-saline, which is a mix between salt water and formolin.[2]
Background
This Architeuthis dux was caught off of Falkland Island in March, 2004,[3] by a fishing trawler.[3] After capture, it died and was frozen in a tank in the Natural History Museum while the custom tank was being constructed. While frozen, DNA tests were conducted to furthermore confirm it as an A. dux.
When defrosting the squid, it "was a vigorous regime of keeping the tentacles frozen with ice packs while hosing down the mantle area".[4] It took around 3 days to fully defrost it, before being injected with formol-saline.
It was put on display on 1 March 2006 at the Darwin Centre.
References
- ↑ Jha, Alok (2006-03-01). "Giant sea creature goes on display". https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/mar/01/science.arts.
- ↑ "Archie the Giant Squid". 2013-02-11. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/archie-giant-squid.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Giant squid: from the deep sea to display". 2015-06-22. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/giant-squid.html.
- ↑ "Archie The Giant Squid". 2006-04-23. https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/archie-giant-squid.
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