Eleven-inch squid eye is largest on the planet

Scientists have found the largest animal eye on Earth measuring 11 inches across on a rare colossal squid.

One of the squid’s two eyes, with a lens as big as an orange, was found intact as the scientists examined the creature while it was slowly defrosted at New Zealand’s national museum where it has been preserved since being caught off Antarctica’s northern coast last year.

“This is the only intact eye (of a colossal squid) that’s ever been found. It’s the largest known eye in the animal kingdom. It’s spectacular,” said Auckland University of Technology squid specialist Kat Bolstad, one of a team of international scientists brought in to examine the creature.

The squid is the biggest specimen ever caught of the rare and mysterious deep-water species Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, or colossal squid.

It is 26 feet long and weighs almost 1,000 lbs, but scientists believe the species may grow as long as 46 feet.

“This is the largest eye ever recorded in history and studied,” said Swedish professor Eric Warrant of the University of Lund, who specialises in vision in invertebrates.

“It has a huge lens the size of an orange and captures an awful lot of light in the dark depths in which it hunts.”

The squids can live up to 6,500 feet down and are known to be aggressive hunters.