You guys might now remember that around March of 2008, we reported that a New Zealand fishing boat was able to catch a 450-kilogram squid. There's one catch to it though, the aquatic animal was inside a giant block of ice.

Scientists actually considered microwaving the poor thing just so they can study it. Good thing that didn't push through. As of this writing, the colossal squid is still thawing slowly but surely under the watchful eye of the Museum of New Zealand.

According to the initial findings of the scientists, this gigantic animal had eyes that measured 27 centimeters across and the lenses sizing up to about 10 to 12 centimeters in diameter. Now these figures could actually balloon up if the squid was live. Professor Eric Warrant of the University of Lund said that its eyes would be around a whopping 40 centimeters across.

Furthermore, Warrant commented on the size of the eyes in the museum's blog. He wrote down:

These are without doubt the largest eyes that have ever been studied and probably among the largest eyes that have existed during the history of the animal kingdom.

Having such humongous eyes, the squid can actually see its prey in the dark about 1,000 meters or more below the surface of where it was caught, in the Antarctic waters. Right now, they are still waiting for the animal to be fully defrosted. So far, what they can tell from the base dimensions of the animal is that it's about eight meters long.

Well, these are pretty astounding findings on the colossal squid. We'll bring you guys more updates on the researchers' findings when they are released. DO check up on this space for that.