May 12 2006. Being in doubt about the field identification and to clean the beach with the gulls evidently on strike (or more likely on distant nest sites), I removed the larger of the two squids and determine that it has enrolled triangular fins of Loligo forbesi Steenstrup extending 12 to 60 mm from the posterior apex within a revised estimate of the dorsal mantle = gladius length of 134 mm and unchanged head and arm length of 80 mm. Judging from the paced distance from the breakwater it had moved one metre to the east in three subsequent tides after stranding exactly 2-0 days before being collected. However, it and the adjacent crab, weed etc., suggest that the three later tides had not moved it so far and merely rotated the head round parallel to the mantle as it became more loose. It was determined that one of the two tentacles was actually present as a thin white thread extending to the tip of the much or conspicuous eight arms and had lost the club of sackers. The other one was not positively identified even when the arms were manipulated and it is easy to see that fossil squid with eight arms might have once had two additional different appendages when alive. There had been no rain and much sunshine since it stranded and shrinkage by dehydration had cracked the curved gladius into three parts and reduced the width of the mantle beyond the fins from 30 to 26 mm. The predicted level of the tides were 0.1 m lower for the first one and 0.1 m higher for the other two, but it is possible that they did not do much more than wet the squid which sank like a stone when tested in sea-water. The jellyfish and other squid were not rediscovered but could have been overlooked during a short visit. The other squid probably was alsoLoligo forbesi.

The morphology of this and other cephalopods has been interpreted by analogy with the neutral buoyancy of submarines and the lift plus jet propulsion by analogy with jet fighters. The Elephant in the room in this good work by a now aging generation of English marine biologists in that in statics there is a trade-off between a lack of exact neutral buoyancy and the convenient horizontal posture of these predators, when they are denser than sea-water.

The illustrations show the adult shape of Loligo forbesi from a fish shop and not distorted like those in preservatives reduced by 70% for comparison with the more juvenile specimen shrunk by decay before stranding on May 10 and by drying on the beach fore two days. The lower surface in life (termed ventral) shows the funnel used for jet propulsion with water ejected from the mantle cavity and the upper (dorsal) surface is darker with the skin damaged in the fish shop and not on the beach (the dark colour of the beach specimen is due to the method of making the image but the skin is intact, with spots on the dorsal side and arms, and not on the tentacles or ventral side. The only sign of the two tentacles on the image of the beach specimen are thinner lines at the tip of the arms and in one place near their base, while in the fish shop they are thicker, longer and terminate in clubs bearing suckers. Both specimens showed enrolled triangular fins, which are unrolled in the fish shop specimen with dissection pins.