NEW YORK, April 16: The colossal squid — a rarely seen creature from the depths of the Antarctic Ocean — has finally been caught on camera in its natural environment, scientists announced this week.

Unlike the more widely known giant squid, made famous by maritime folklore and tales of underwater battles with sperm whales, the colossal squid is even larger and far more mysterious. It wasn't officially recognized by scientists until about a century ago, and since then, only a handful of specimens — usually dead or dying — have been observed, often brought to the surface by fishermen or found inside the stomachs of whales and seabirds.

Now, for the first time, researchers have recorded footage of a living colossal squid in the deep sea. The video, verified by two squid experts, shows a juvenile squid — just under a foot long — swimming at a depth of 600 meters (about 1,970 feet) in the frigid waters near the South Sandwich Islands.

The colossal squid is the heaviest invertebrate on Earth, capable of growing up to 23 feet in length and weighing over 1,100 pounds. But this sighting features a baby — a rare glimpse into the early life of a creature that has eluded science for decades.

“This is honestly one of the most exciting observations we've had in my time working on deep-sea cephalopods,” said Kat Bolstad, a squid researcher at Auckland University of Technology, during a press briefing on Tuesday.

In the video, Bolstad pointed out the squid’s shimmering eyes and rust-colored chromatophores — pigment cells that hint at the squid's ability to shift between transparency and opacity. “It probably has fine control over whether it can do that in certain regions of the body,” she explained.

The footage was captured on March 9 by a remotely operated underwater vehicle called SuBastian, deployed from the research vessel Falkor (too) during a 35-day Ocean Census expedition — an international effort to discover new marine species.

Aaron Evans, an expert in the glass squid family (to which the colossal squid belongs), worked with Bolstad to confirm the squid’s identity. A key clue was the presence of distinctive hooks in the middle of its eight arms — a trait unique to colossal squids. “When we saw those arm hooks, I started hyperventilating,” Evans admitted during the briefing.

Though scientists had previously suspected a 2023 video may have shown a juvenile colossal squid, this latest footage provides far more clarity and detail.

Colossal squids have several unique features. In addition to hooks on their arms and tentacles — which can rotate 360 degrees to grip prey — they possess the largest eyes of any known animal, thought to aid their vision in the pitch-black depths of the Southern Ocean. These enormous eyes may also help the squids detect underwater vehicles before cameras can even spot them, which might explain their elusive nature.

"Most adult colossal squids are probably going to want to escape as soon as something large approaches them," Evans said. "From their point of view, anything big coming their way is probably a threat."

But the young squid in the video appeared calm and curious, seemingly adopting a "wait and see" approach as the vehicle neared.

“Eventually, we’ll capture footage of the full-grown colossal squid,” Bolstad said. “They’ll have big, powerful arms and fearsome hooks. There’ll be lots of monster hype about them. But for now, we get to introduce the world to the live colossal squid as this delicate, beautiful little animal.”