If you search for “the squid game” using any of the search engines available on the internet, you will surely find something related to the Korean children’s game or the Korean series.
The game is so named because the shape of the playing area drawn on the ground resembles a squid.
The eponymous series centers on a contest in which 456 players, all from different walks of life, but heavily in debt, play various childish games with fatal consequences if they lose, for a chance to win $45,600. million won. One million won is currently 733 euros.
Are the squids really as exciting as the game and the series?
Squids are marine cephalopods with eight arms and two long tentacles, which are normally capable of changing colour.
The squid is one of the most developed invertebrates, well adapted to its active and predatory life.
There are over 300 known species of squid that have been identified.
There are saltwater and even freshwater squid. Many squids live in the deep, in cold waters with little oxygen.
The largest number of squid species are found in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Most squid species are found at least 300 meters below the surface. Some species of squid are known to live deeper than 4,000 meters in the water.
They live between 6 months, the smallest squid, and the largest up to 5 years.
The smallest squid is the pygmy squid, which can be less than 2.5 centimeters long, while the largest is the colossal (larger than giant) squid, which can be up to 14 meters long and weigh up to 750 kg.
Squids have gills.
Squids have three hearts. A main heart that pumps blood throughout the body and two smaller ones, located on the sides, that help irrigate the gills.
Squid blood is blue, not red like in humans. This is because squid blood contains a copper-containing compound called hemocyanin. In humans, blood is red and contains the iron compound hemoglobin.
The skin is covered in chromatophores, which allow the squid to change color to match its surroundings, making it virtually invisible. The lower part is also almost always lighter than the upper part, to camouflage itself from the prey as well as from the predator.
The main body mass is enclosed in the mantle, with a swimming fin along each side.
They move through the water “tail” first rather than head first.
A squid moves using a jet propulsion system, moving water into its mantle cavity, contracting the muscles of the mantle wall, and ejecting the water through its siphon, or funnel. Its fins facilitate maneuverability and also help with lift and movement while the squid is traveling at low speed.
Squid are good swimmers and certain species can “fly” short distances out of the water.
Squids can reach 40 km/h, making them the fastest marine invertebrates.
All squids have an ink sac inside the mantle. The ink is a dark liquid and is expelled through the siphon. If the squid encounters a predator, it shoots out a cloud of ink that hides the squid so it can escape.
Squid and octopus have a more complex nervous system than other mollusks and invertebrates in general.
Some squid species can glow in the dark due to having bioluminescent organs.
The eyes, on either side of the head, each contain a lens. The image is focused by changing the position of the lens, as in a camera or telescope, rather than by changing the shape of the lens, as in the human eye. Colossal squids have eyeballs the same size as a standard basketball.
Squids can hear. But they don’t detect the pressure changes associated with sound waves, like we do. They have another technique for listening: they feel the movement generated by sound waves.
They have small teeth on the sides of the tongue. But its main weapon is its beak, which is similar to that of a parrot. They use it to catch their prey and tear it to pieces.
All squid are carnivorous, eating mainly fish, shrimp, crab, and even other squid. They are stalking predators, sneaking up on prey and capturing it before it can escape.
Some squid species live in schools like fish and others are solitary.
When mating time arrives, large groups of males and females come together at dawn and begin to swim rapidly in large circles. After a while mating begins. Once a male and female mate, the female squid will lay eggs. A female can produce thousands of eggs at a time.
It will distribute them even under rocks or in holes and crevices it can find. It can take up to eight weeks for those eggs to hatch, so keeping them safe from predators is difficult. Female squids do not wait for them to hatch, once deposited they leave.
Squid’s natural predators include birds, fish, sharks, and whales.
Squid ink contains dopamine, a neurotransmitter that in the human brain produces a feeling of euphoria. It is not known what role it plays in the squid and why it is in the ink.
The species Heteroteuthis Dispar, is a squid that shoots a cloud of light from bioluminescent photophores to distract predators.
What is more interesting: the series, the game or the real squids?