Researchers Have Seen This ‘Elbowed’ Squid Only Twice in 40 Years

Quick Take

• Forty years of deep-sea exploration turned up shockingly few encounters with this creature. How few?
• Science collected the first specimen long before anyone could name it. The gap is startling.
• No scientist has ever examined a full-grown one. What are researchers still missing?
• Disturb it, and those spooky trailing filaments do something startling.

With their eerie undulating body and ‘elbows’ on their trailing arms, tentacles, and filaments, the bigfin squid is a strange and fascinating sight. This Instagram post captures one of the rare times these mysterious creatures have been filmed. The squid is nonchalantly moving through the murky water, unaware of the excitement it has caused. We investigated who spotted the marine animal and how rare it truly is.

The Elusive Bigfin Squid

Bigfin squids belong to the genus Magnapinna and are thought to be the deepest-occurring squids in the oceans. They are a type of Cephalopod and some can reach 21 feet in total length, including their trailing filaments.

Experts do not yet know what their diet is made up of but the squid are found throughout a range of depths from 5,200 feet to 20,300 feet. The deepest sighting was four miles below the surface of the ocean and was recorded in the Philippine Trench in the Western Pacific. They move around using the undulations of their two large fins. Their body is an elongated, teardrop shape with eight arms and two tentacles trailing behind. These appendages each have a 90-degree bend, much like an elbow. In all, the filaments can be 20 times the squid’s body length.

The very first specimen was collected in 1883 but they were not described until 1998. Scientists have never obtained an adult specimen; only damaged juveniles. So, there is still a lot to learn about these creatures.

Where Are Bigfin Squid Found?

Their range is thought to be worldwide in tropical and temperate waters. However, forty years of deep-sea exploration by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has logged just two sightings! The first was off the shore of O‘ahu, Hawaiʻi, in 2001. The second was above the abyssal seafloor near Davidson Seamount, off Central California, in August 2026. That most recent sighting is the one featured in this Instagram post. This particular squid was just over four feet long.

In all, there have only ever been 70 sightings of these squid. They are usually seen near the sea floor. Some spread their arms and tentacles wide and dangle their thread-like filaments, almost like they are eerily creeping across the ocean floor. If they are disturbed, however, these filaments recoil quickly!