Humboldt squids, living at great depths of the ocean, have developed their own unique way of communicating with brothers.
Thanks to the special pigment cells – chromatophores – amazing creatures are able to emit bright flashes of bioluminescent light in the darkness.
At Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, scientists have explored this interesting communication tool. It is based on photophores – small light points scattered throughout the squid’s body.
It is curious that photophores do not emit light outside, but inside the being, as a result of which it shines entirely.
So, during the hunt, the Humboldt squid seems to flicker. In essence and function, it resembles a signal from a turning lamp of a car during a maneuver on the road.
Humboldt squids live at depths of up to 700 m in the east of the Pacific Ocean. They reach one and a half meters in size, and move in large groups of over a thousand individuals in each.
