Giant plastinated squid

This lovely 21.5 foot squid is now hanging around Paris's Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. The creature has been plastinated, meaning its fluids have been replaced with a polymer. (It's the same process Gunther von Hagens used for the Body Worlds exhibitions.) The squid was donated by the country of New Zealand. From the BBC News:

A pink pigment was added to make it look as close as possible to the living creature...

The usual way of preserving life forms - by pickling them in a jar - would, the museum said, have been demeaning, and out of the question.

Link to BBC News, Link to museum page

• [insomma]

  “The squid hangs from the ceiling of France’s National Museum of Natural History, where its long pink tentacles stretch down towards a terrified-looking shark.”

  Why can’t I picture a terrified-looking shark?

• [JJR1971]

  We have one of those hanging in the Houston Museum of Natural Science, though I think it’s just a model, not the plastinated real deal.

• [shondle A]

  I feel for you dog..squid…..better paris than houston tho eh?

• [mikelite]

  “The usual way of preserving life forms – by pickling them in a jar – would, the museum said, have been demeaning, and out of the question.”

  damn, I thought I finally had a use for this giant-squid sized pickle jar i’ve been saving…

• [noen]

  The biomass of giant squids is greater than the combined biomass of all of humanity.

• [cafewalter]

  There is a beautiful lifesize giant squid made of copper, hanging in the central atrium of the Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA, USA. There are some pictures of it here.

• [Zaren]

  Scrolling down to the photo, I thought it was a still frame from Blade Runner -the color and image quality and background all reminded me of a street scene from the movie. I don’t think a giant flying squid would be entirely out of place there.

• [Ian70]

  “I can’t do that thing anymore,
  I can’t be the thing I was before,
  maybe I am better off alone,
  because I crush everything,
  and I crush everything,
  and I crush everything.”

• [xopl]

  April Fools!!!

  Giant Squids aren’t real!

• [Clay]

  Whatever may exist beyond the limits of space we’ve explored… It can’t be weirder than what is already beneath our oceans.

• [jaydaze]

  There are too Giant Squids! Watch this very short clip about penguins to find out more….

• [xopl]

  Oh yeah like I’m going to believe anything on youtube on April Fool’s day. Probably just another Rick Roll anyway!

• [Pipenta]

  It looks a lot like a model of a giant squid that used to hang in Yale’s Peabody Museum, one that was not plastinated.

  People projecting a lot of their issues on squid lately, don’t y’all think? You’ve got one boat captain describing them as vicious and this museum describing the usual preservation methods as demeaning(!) and a researcher tell us they have no feelings at all.

  I suspect squid feel a lot of things. I don’t think demeaned is one of them, especially after they are dead. While they are still in the pink, I think mostly they feel… hungry.