Warty bobtail squid facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Warty bobtail squid |
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| Conservation status | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Cephalopoda |
| Order: | Sepiida |
| Family: | Sepiolidae |
| Subfamily: | Rossiinae |
| Genus: | Rossia |
| Species: |
R. palpebrosa
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| Binomial name | |
| Rossia palpebrosa Owen, 1834
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| Synonyms | |
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The warty bobtail squid (scientific name: Rossia palpebrosa) is a small and interesting type of bobtail squid. It lives in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. The first place this squid was officially found and described was simply called "Arctic Regions."
What It Looks Like
The warty bobtail squid is quite small, usually growing to about 45 millimeters (about 1.8 inches) long. This measurement is for its main body, called the mantle. The mantle is round at the back and isn't attached to the head at the top.
Its head is wide, and both the head and mantle are covered in small bumps called tubercles. These bumps can be big and spread out, but on young squids or in some local groups, they might be small and hard to see. Inside its body, the mantle cavity is divided by a strong muscle wall.
The squid has kidney-shaped fins that are set at an angle. It often has a special glowing organ near its ink sac. Its tentacles can be pulled back into its body and have clear, straight clubs at the end. The suckers on these clubs are arranged in about eight rows and are all about the same size. The squid's arms are short but strong, and each arm has two rows of suckers in the middle part.
Where It Lives
The warty bobtail squid lives in a wide area of the Atlantic Ocean. In the western Atlantic, it can be found from Baffin Bay in the Canadian Arctic all the way south to South Carolina. In the eastern Atlantic, it lives near Iceland, Spitzbergen, Scotland, the Barents Sea, the Kara Sea, the North Sea, and off the coast of Ireland.
This squid usually lives deep in the ocean, between 75 and 550 meters (about 246 to 1,804 feet) down. It's a benthic species, meaning it lives on or near the ocean floor. While it usually stays deep, it has been seen as shallow as 10 meters (about 33 feet) in the fjords of northern Norway and as deep as 1,250 meters (about 4,100 feet).
Life and Habits
The warty bobtail squid reproduces internally. Many squids lay their eggs together in large groups. Each egg is fairly big, measuring about 7 to 10 millimeters (0.28 to 0.39 inches) across. They lay these eggs in the spring and summer. They often hide their eggs inside certain types of sponges that belong to the class Demospongiae.
This squid mainly eats small crustaceans, which are like tiny ocean bugs. It also eats small fish and even other smaller squids. The warty bobtail squid itself is a food source for bigger fish and different kinds of marine mammals.
 | Sharif Bey |
 | Hale Woodruff |
 | Richmond Barthé |
 | Purvis Young |
