You know what could save us from those spiders raining from the sky in Brazil? Squids that can jump out of the ocean and fly up to 100 feet through the air. Whew, that’s a relief. (And by “relief” we mean “horrifying new development oh Jesus kill it with fire.”)
Jun Yamamoto of Hokkaido University and his team have been tracking shoals of oceanic squid north of Tokyo, which have been rumored to be able to jump out of the water. They snagged what is likely the first picture of this natural phenomenon. In the photo (which we can’t post due to copyright reasons) more than 20 of the squids are launching themselves out of the ocean by shooting a high-pressure jet of water through one of their stems. While mid-air, they glide by spreading out their arms and fins. They retract their arms and fins before hitting the water to lessen their impact. Sneaky, sneaky squids.
The squid were in the air for about three seconds, gliding at speeds of up to 11.2 meters per second. For comparison, Usain Bolt’s gold medal winning speed was 10.31 meters per second. Yamamoto believes the squid do this to evade predators. We believe they do it to confuse the sh-t out of seagulls.