A Transparent Banded Piglet Squid With a Big Snout

While exploring the waters off Palmyra Atoll, the expedition crew on the E/V Nautilus spotted a mysterious transparent creature with a big head, a big snout and a grouping of tentacles up top was swimming towards them. As it turns out, the creature was a very rarely sighted banded piglet squid, a small cephalopod of the Cranchiidae (glass squid) variety.

“What are you?” “What is that?!” The Nautilus team enjoyed a quick close-up with a see-through piglet squid (Helicocranchia sp.), named for its large siphon that looks like a snout. Able to regulate buoyancy with an ammonia-filled internal chamber, this stunning squid is often observed with its tentacles flared above its head.