the.com/squid
a three-hearted alien genius with a beak, jet engine, and zero patience for clichés
means A soft-bodied marine mollusk with ten arms, two of them long tentacles, a tubular body, and the ability to shoot ink and jet through water.
from From English 'squid,' which surfaces in the 16th century as a sailor's word of murky origin — quite possibly a dialect variant of 'squirt,' nodding to the creature's habit of jetting water and ink. The plural has wandered cheerfully between 'squid' and 'squids' ever since. Its scientific kin carry grander Latin and Greek names, but 'squid' itself stays stubbornly common, a deckhand's term that never put on airs.
- three hearts
- two pump gills, one pumps everything else
- blue blood
- copper, not iron, carries their oxygen
- jet propulsion
- squirts water to rocket backward at speed
- colossal eyes
- giant species sport dinner-plate eyes, basketball-sized
- instant disguise
- skin changes color and texture in milliseconds
giant squid — architeuthis dux, up to 43 feet long, lives in deep atlantic and pacific oceans
colossal squid — mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, antarctic waters, larger eyes than giant squid, 46 feet recorded
humboldt squid — dosidicus gigas, eastern pacific, aggressive pack hunters, 5 feet long, called 'red devils'