On Sun, 27 Nov 2011 08:40:46 -0500, "Robert Green"
wrote:

"Malcom "Mal" Reynolds" wrote in message
news:atlas-bugged-

stuff snipped

I don't know why, but this reminds me of how the stories of giant squids
that were 100's of feet long got started. Whales were found with sucker
mark scars nearly a foot in diameter, which led oceanologists to believe
they were attacked by giant squids. Further study showed that baby
whales
often get attacked by large squid that leave sucker marks an inch or two
in
diameter. As the whales grew, the marks enlarged like writing on a
balloon,
until they appeared to be so large only a colossal squid could have made
them.

--
Bobby G.

so you are saying that oceanologists were unable to ascertain the age of
the
sucker mark by the state of the wound?

I'm only repeating what I've read, and yes, it does seem that it's hard to
ascertain the age of scar tissue on whales from just looking. This site has
an actual photograph of the sucker ring scars. It doesn't look easy to tell
from simple observation which scars are older than others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_squid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_...cker_scars.JPG

Wow. When they overlap they look like baseballs.

This site:

http://invertebrates.si.edu/giant_squid/page2.html says:

Whales stranded on beaches and caught by whaling ships bear circular scars
inflicted by the powerful suckers of giant squid. Scientists have used the
size of the scars to estimate the size of the squid eaten by the whales.
Scars as large as 7.8 inches (20 cm) have been reported and some people
believe that it would take a 246-foot (75 m) squid to bear such a sucker!
Do not believe it! Scientists have noted that no fresh scars have been
measured larger than about 1.97 inches (5 cm), and no giant squid specimens
have been examined with suckers larger than 2.05 inches (5.2 cm). In fact,
the size of giant sucker scars increases as sperm whales grow. It is also
possible that ringworm, a fungal infection that grows in a circular pattern,
has been mistaken for old sucker scars. The current scientific conclusion
is that adult giant squid suckers are between 0.79-1.97 inches (2-5 cm) in
diameter, smaller on arms and largest on the tentacles.

So there is a difference between arms and tentacles? Are one
equivalent to arms and the other to legs? Or front legs and hind
legs?

No credible reports
exist of suckers larger than this.

I'd guess the rumors got started by whalers a long time before researchers
where able to get close enough to carefully examine the scars. From wha

I have scars that didn't change for years and if I'd been growing, I
doubt anyone could have told how old they were or how big they were
originally, since they didn't know how long ago I got them.

I have a scar on my cheek from a toasted marshmallow that grew as I
got bigger, even though most children's scars get smaller.
Oceanologist can't know everything, including details of scar age.
t
the Wikipedia photo shows, it's probably not that easy to separate enlarged
scars from non-enlarged ones via simple visual inspection. It's a lesson in
"things aren't always as they seem."