By now we’ve all seen the first footage captured of a giant squid, but for our part, we have yet to grow tired of it, because giant squids are amazing. With that in mind, we direct you to researcher Edith Widder’s TED Talk about the expedition to film the squid for the first time, her role in it, and how she got involved in the project. Widder offers a wealth of valuable backstory and technical details on the project and the unmatched insight of one of the expedition’s main scientists, along with candid camera video of researchers hollering like excited kids when they realize they’ve captured video of the squid at long last.
The whole video is worth a watch, especially to get a look at the excitement in the lab when researchers got their first look at the giant squid. You’ll also learn how filming the squid has taught researchers some new lessons about the monstrous cephalopod’s ecology and how it hunts — a process that some times involves being the biggest bully on the playground and responding to frantic SOS calls from small animals about to be eaten by predators. Predators who don’t have a chance against a giant squid. Our favorite part, though,  may be just 25 seconds in, when Widder’s discussion of the Kraken is illustrated by a painting from the Pathfinder Mythical Monsters Revisited. Because yes, that.
(via TED)
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