Public dissection of giant squid

11 July, 2008

Click here to view larger image.
Giant squid
Image: Paul McCoy
Source: DPI Victoria

On Thursday 17th of July, Melbourne Museum held its first ever public dissection by Museum scientists of a giant squid.  

The dissection  was performed in the Science and Life Gallery from 11.30 am till 1 pm. The dissection was streamed live, and a recording can be viewed here or downloaded.

The squid which was accidentally caught in a fishing trawl off western Victoria, weighs around 245 kg, making it the largest giant squid that Australian researchers have encountered. It is estimated that, intact, the animal would have been over 12 metres long.

“This is the first time the Museum has done a dissection in a public forum, and we expect the interest to be enormous,” said Dr Mark Norman, world-renowned squid expert and Deputy Head of Science (Marine Zoology), Museum Victoria.

“With this public dissection, we hope to achieve greater awareness and understanding of these little-known and rarely-seen deep-sea creatures" Dr Norman said.

Your comments

rahmanuddin 29 Dec 2009 20:56 PM
good practice
Janette Wilmott 17 Mar 2010 08:47 AM
Your film of the Public Dissection of a Giant Squid is first class. Congratualtions on the idea, as well as the knowledge and capacity-to-relate-to-layperson of the expert. I am learning designer with the NSW Department of Education and am currently designing a game for students about the giant squid. One and a half hours is a long time for students to watch the video so, I'm wondering if the film is able to be watched in any other format eg segments, or if I would be able to have access to a copy of the film footage so that I could put it in video-player software in segments. Regards Janette Wilmott (Centre for Learning Innovation)
winnie 17 Mar 2010 09:53 AM
how beautiful x]
Discovery Centre 17 Mar 2010 16:02 PM
Museum Victoria

We're pleased you all enjoyed this. Janette - a ten-minute version of the film is available at this part of our website. Will this suffice for your purposes? If not, get in touch with us over here and we'll endeavour to help out further.

Aylah Taylor 20 Jul 2010 11:17 AM
I find these animal's to be very, ' interesting ' I would really like to see one up close.
Discovery Centre 21 Jul 2010 14:08 PM
Museum Victoria

Hi Aylah, you might be interested to know that the giant squid is actually on display in the Marine Life section of the Museum.


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