To make it even more beautiful, it's a video, and not even a vertical, front-facing one! The squid mom below was filmed in 2015 by researchers... A little past 8,400 feet below the surface, a large red squid hovered into view, carrying several dozen eggs in her fleshy arms.
Most squids have a much more carefree approach to childcare, which is to say they lay their eggs and immediately die. As such, it's often difficult for scientists to track where these eggs go, beyond the mouths of hungry predators... Some brood their eggs, carrying their eggs in large sheets resembling Hong Kong egg waffles as they drift in the dark.
MBARI scientists have observed a few other species of deep-sea squid brooding their eggs over 37 years of exploration... And they've filmed squids in the genus Bathyteuthis grasping hundreds of tiny translucent eggs in a curtain-like sheet.
These brooding squids cannot eat while brooding, so they sustain themselves on energy reserves until their eggs hatch and they are free to.
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