Super squid penis. (No, this is not spam.)

BBC recently covered the salacious details when scientists discovered a squid’s enormous sexual organ:

The male squid’s sexual organ is almost as long as its whole body, including the squid’s mantle, head and arms.

That shows how male deep-sea squid inseminate females; they use their huge penis to shoot out packages of sperm, injecting them into the female’s body.

The discovery may also help explain how giant squid mate in the ocean depths.

…

“When the mantle of the squid was opened for maturity assessment, we witnessed an unusual event,” [says Dr Alexander Arkhipkin of the Falkland Islands Government Fisheries Department.]

“The penis of the squid, which had extended only slightly over the mantle margin, suddenly started to erect, and elongated quickly to 67cm total length, almost the same length as the whole animal.”

Picture at the link. You pervert.

Tags: marine biology