Giant Squid Storms Australia

A giant squid that weighs 550 pounds and measures 26 feet from the tip of its body to the end of its fearsome tentacles washed up on an Australian beach today. The rarely spotted sea creature is the largest specimen encountered since February, when fishermen in New Zealand netted a 33-foot catch that weighed 1,100 pounds.

A beachcomber found the underwater monster while walking along Ocean Beach, an island off the coast of Tasmania. Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or colossal squids, live in the ocean depths near southern Australia; experts say they can grow up to 46 feet long. This one is headed to a museum, where it will undergo DNA tests and be preserved for public display. (More giant squid stories.)