Search Hollywood Life Search Trending Navigation Trending Lastly, Williams explores the idea of cephalopod intelligence.Latest Hollywood Celebrity & Entertainment News Primary Menu Menu Close Menu Many squid gave their nerves so that a few humans could win some Nobel Prizes and we’re all the wiser for it. Once neuroscientists learned of this fact and became aware of the many similarities between squid and human nerve cells, the door opened wide to a full understanding of nerve cell biology, explaining how nerve impulses travel and how cells perform their essential duties.

While vertebrate nerves are made of bundles of microscopic nerve fibers, the squid’s main nerve is just a single giant cell that can be easily removed intact and alive. Possibly in order to facilitate rapid maneuverability, the squid’s nervous system has a single neuron at its center. To be honest, I found the first half of the book to be rather slow and simple and the scattering of small black and white photographs dampened my enthusiasm further.īut rather inexplicably, the second half of the book is much better, focusing on two interesting aspects of squid biology.

She visits with numerous squid researchers, gaining a direct look into their often cold, wet and slimy explorations. She goes on to describe the small amount that we actually know about these mysterious animals, including much information about other squid species, as well as their close relatives, the octopus and cuttlefish, collectively making up cephalopod class within the phylum Mollusca. She starts this slender 200 page volume by describing how humans came to know of the giant squid, which spends its life in the depths and rarely washes up on shore. In Kraken –the Norse name given to this variety of monster – journalist Wendy Williams describes the bizarre world of these fascinating deep sea creatures. At fifty feet long, with eight massive muscular arms, two long tentacles, a pair of giant eyes and a sharp, flesh shredding beak, the giant squid could feel right at home in any ancient mariner’s nightmares. They’re probably the original inspiration for the ancient belief in sea monsters.

Kraken by Wendy Williams