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Kraken and Leviathan: Difference between revisions
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* For a while researchers theorized that the stories of the Kraken were exaggerations of [[wikipedia:Giant squid|Giant Squid]] sightings, but more recent discoveries might prove that the tales [[Truth in Television|were not so exaggerated]]; specimens as large as eight meters (26 feet) have been caught, and it's theorized they can grow to 10 to 13 meters in total. They've also been shown to display aggressive hunting behaviors, in contrast to the hypothesis that they are slothful drifters.
** Then there's the [http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/ Colossal Squid]. [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/61/Colossal_squid_caught_in_February_2007.jpg A live specimen was caught in 2007], and initial estimates put its total length at 10 meters (33 feet) long before the tentacles shrank post-mortem. It's theorized that there may be even larger examples of the species in the wild, as the beak of the live specimen was smaller than what they'd found in the stomachs of sperm whales.
*** Another evidence is scars. Giant cephalopods, naturally, fight back unless completely stunned by an attack. This leaves recognizable marks on the sperm whale's hide. The size of some scars is quite impressive, and it can be hard to tell whether one was left when the whale was much younger and stretched with the skin, or it's fairly recent.
* There have always been unpleasantly large cephalopods throughout the history of the world:
** One was ''Cameroceras'', an Ordovician (about 440 million years ago) genus of primitive shelled cephalopods which had long, conical shells ranging from 3 to 11 feet in length.
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