December 14, 2005—When it comes to their eggs, squid have long been thought to have a lay-'em-and-leave- 'em policy. But today a team from the University of Rhode Island and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute announced their unprecedented observation of a squid tending her young.

In this silent video filmed by a remotely operated vehicle off California, a squid carries a tubular pouch of thousands of eggs, opening and closing her arms in an apparent attempt to flush the eggs with water and aerate them in oxygen- poor depths. Finally, the mature eggs begin floating away from the pouch and hatch.