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Draft:Archie the Giant Squid

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Archie the Giant Squid
SpeciesArchiteuthis dux
Died2004
Falkland Islands
OwnerNatural History Museum, London
Height8.62 m (28 ft 3 in)

Archie the Giant Squid is the preserved giant squid at the heart of the London Natural History Museum's Darwin Spirit Collection.[1]

History

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In 2004 Archie was caught alive by a fishing trawler off the coast of the Falkland Islands. The specimen soon died and was quickly frozen and transported to the Natural History Museum in London, preserving it's soft tissue and DNA long enough for samples to be taken and analyzed by museum scientists.[2]

Importance

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The preservation and analysis of Archie's DNA helped researchers to prove that only one species of Giant Squid, Architeuthis dux, exists.[2]

  1. ^ "Archie the Giant Squid". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
  2. ^ a b "Giant squid: from the deep sea to display". www.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-09-05.