Post-spawning egg care by a squid: Spying on a brooding deep-sea squid reveals that it cradles and aerates its eggs while they mature

摘要

Gonntus onyx is one of the most abundant cephalopods in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and is an important prey species for a variety of vertebrate predators, but a full understanding of its life history has been hampered because spawning occurs at great depths, where observation is difficult. Here we describe post-spawning egg care, or brooding, in this deep-sea squid. Our finding is unexpected because this behaviour differs from the reproductive habits of all other known squid species.