Put away the garlic and wooden stakes, this is one vampire that doesn’t have much of a bite.
Neither a vampire nor a squid, the vampire squid, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, prefers to hang out in low-oxygen ocean zones such as the Monterey Submarine Canyon, rather than Transylvania, waiting patiently for its next meal. Despite their sinister appearance—and their scientific name, which means “vampire squid from hell”—these deep sea cephalopods are scavengers. Two sticky filaments float suspended in the water column to catch “marine snow,” a mixture of poop, dead organic material and mucus, that rains down from above—the perfect draculamari appetizer for these denizens of the deep.
