This Halloween, Get To Know Some Fearsome Fangs!

It’s Hallo-“week,” which can only mean one thing: cool ghouls rule! Feel the same? Then let me introduce you to the vampire squid!

 Move over, Dracula— there’s a new vampire in town! Though Drac might have a mere two fangs, this deep-sea menace has 28! However, when it comes to dental care, this cephalopod lucked out: whenever the vampire squid breaks a tooth, it simply grows a replacement. Thank goodness— Tebo Dental has yet to open a branch 3,000 feet below sea level!

Don’t let this deep-sea dweller fool you, though. It may look tough, but this oceanic ghoul doesn’t measure up. Though the vampire squid can live eight years or more, it rarely grows beyond one foot in length. And however scary those fangs may seem, you’ve got nothing to fear from this vampire. Forget the blood— though you could see this squid chomping on . . . feces. (Yuck, right?) And guess what? The only prey these fangs devour is deep-sea gook, or what oceanographers lovingly call marine snow.

All in all, this squid’s more vacuum than a vampire. Thank goodness— someone’s got to give the deep sea a deep clean. And we all know it won’t be Dracula.