The vampire squid reaches a maximum total length of around 30 cm (1 ft). Its 15 cm (6 inch) gelatinous bodyvaries in color between velvety jet-black and pale reddish, depending on location and lighting conditions. Its limpid, globular eyes, which appear red or blue, depending on lighting, are proportionately the largest in the animal kingdom at 2.5 cm (1 inch) in diameter.
The vampire squid is an extreme example of a deep-sea cephalopod, thought to reside at depths from 600–900 metres (2,000–3,000 feet) or more. Within this region of the world's oceans is a discrete habitat known as the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ). Within the OMZ oxygen saturation is too low to support aerobic metabolism in most higher organisms. Nonetheless, the vampire squid is able to live and breathe normally in the OMZ at oxygen saturations as low as 3%; a feat no other cephalopod, and few other animals, can claim.
It's been an inspiration in the recent financial crisis !
A 2010 Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi likened investment bank Goldman Sachs to"a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money"
This comparison was later used by other critics of Goldman Sachs, such as the Occupy Wall Street movement.
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