Giant Squid Emerges from the Deep to Appear on Your Screen

It's the modern day kraken, the horror that appeared in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and tried to sink Captain Nemo's submarine. It's also one of the most mysterious animals beneath the ocean considering its size; it's the giant squid. However, the new footage of this squid has let scientists learn a little bit more about the animals that have haunted the ocean's depths.

This Sunday, the giant squid will leave the ocean and appear right in your living room. The Discovery Channel is airing its new show, "Monster Squid: The Giant is Real", at 8 p.m. EST. Produced with Japan's NHK network, the show recounts the stories of three scientists as they hunt for the giant squid in the Pacific Ocean off of Japan. Although the squid has never been seen alive until now, the public received an advanced peek of the creature on a video clip from the show posted on YouTube.

Giant squid have eight arms, two feeding tentacles and a cap-like mantle. They can grow up to 55 feet in length and have eyes the size of cantaloupes. The one caught in the video, though, was only about 30 feet long. Nonetheless, it was a spectacular sight. It was silver and gold in color and for some reason, it was missing its two longest tentacles.

But those aren't the only unusual features that giant squid possess. They also have a color-changing system for camouflage. It functions using organelles called chromatophores that contain pigment and reflect light. Unlike in other animals, though, the chromatophores in the giant squid are located very deep inside their body cavities.

The new video allowed scientists to further examine the behavior of giant squid in the wild. If you want to take a closer look at the squid, check out the video below.