6 Differences Between Giant Squid and Colossal Squid with Table

What is the difference between a giant squid and colossal squid?

Many people confuse squid and octopus. These are two different sea creatures. There are species of squid that are larger than the largest octopus in the world.

Giant and colossal are squid species that both have the largest eyes of any living creature. The eyes enable them to detect light better when they are at the extreme bottom ends of the ocean.

The main difference between the giant squid and colossal squid is the size. The giant squid is comparatively smaller in body size as compared to the colossal squid.

Comparison Table (Giant squid vs Colossal squid)

Characteristics	Giant squid	Colossal squid
Size	They are comparatively smaller in body size.	They are larger in body size.
Tentacles	They have long tentacles.	They have shorter tentacles.
Beaks	They have comparatively smaller beaks.	They have larger beaks.
Mantle	They have a shorter mantle	They have longer mantled.
How they catch their prey	They use their long tentacles to grip their prey.	They use their sharp swiveling hooks to catch their prey.
What they feed on	They feed on deep-sea fish.	They feed on Chaetognatha, Patagonian toothfish, and other types of fish.

What Is Giant Squid?

The giant squid is a species of squid found in the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and on the coast of Norway, Northern British Isles, Spain, Azores, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia.

It is a marine invertebrate that grows up to the size of a school bus. The females grow up to 43 feet while the males grow up to 33 feet.

It is a smaller squid species, it has arms, tentacles, and mantle. It has the longest tentacles among other squid species. The tentacles are useful as it uses it to catch its prey.

They have big eyes which enable them to see deep down the ocean where they find their food. Their eyes are about a foot in diameter.

They are prey to sperm whales. The sperm whales are very skilled in hunting down giant squids. This makes scientists follow sperm whales with hopes of finding giant squids.

What Is Colossal Squid?

The colossal squid is found in the Southern Ocean. They are the biggest squid. It is the only species of squid that belongs to the Mesonychoteuthis genus.

It the largest species of invertebrate. It measures 39 to 46 feet. They have arms and their tentacles have sharp swiveling hooks that enable them to catch their prey. Their tentacles are shorter and their mantle is longer.

They feed on Chaetognatha, Patagonian toothfish, and other types of fish using its bioluminescence. The sperm whales also love to prey on them. Due to that, the body of whales have scars they obtain from colossal squids.

They have large eyes which can measure a foot in diameter which enables them to see down deep in the ocean as that is where they find their food and also detect the approaching of their predator.

Main Differences between Giant squid and Colossal squid

The giant squid is comparatively smaller in body size while the colossal squid is large in body size.
The giant squid has longer tentacles while the colossal squid has shorter tentacles.
The giant squid has comparatively smaller beaks while colossal squids have larger beaks.
Giant squids have shorter mantles while colossal squid has longer mantled.
Giant squid uses their long tentacles to catch their prey while colossal squids have sharp swiveling hooks on their tentacles that they use to catch their prey.

Similarities between Giant squid and Colossal squid

They are both squid species.
They both live in deep parts of the ocean.
They both feed on different fish in the deep part of the ocean.
They both have large eyes that enable them to see the deeper parts of the ocean.
Both are preyed on by sperm whales.

In Conclusion

Giant squid and colossal squid are both invertebrates found in the deepest parts of the ocean. They are larger than the octopus. The colossal squid is the largest.

They all have large eyes which can measure a foot in their diameter to enable them to see with minimal light in the deepest part of the ocean as that is where they mostly find their food.

The main feature that makes giant squid different from colossal squid is the size of their bodies.

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