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An unknown species of gigantic octopus has been hypothesised as a source of reports of sea monsters such as the . They are not to be confused with the known Giant Octopus , which is a member of the scientifically defined genus, '' Enteroctopus '', and grows to about thirty feet in arm spread. The colossal octopus is assumed to be much larger. It is possible that some deep water Cirrate octopodes such as '' Haliphron Atlanticus '' reach sizes such that they might be considered gigantic. HISTORY In 1802, however, the French Malacologist Pierre Denys De Montfort in ''Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mollusques'', an encyclopedic description of mollusks, recognized the existence of two kinds of giant octopus. One being the ''kraken octopus'', which Denys de Montfort believed had been described not only by Norwegian sailors and American whalers, but also by ancient writers such as Pliny The Elder . The second one being the much larger ''colossal octopus'' (the one actually depicted by the image) which reportedly attacked a sailing vessel from Saint-Malo off the coast of Angola . A gigantic octopus has been proposed as an identity for the large carcass, known as the St. Augustine Monster , that washed up in St Augustine, Florida in 1896. However, samples of this specimen subjected to Electron Microscopy and Biochemical Analysis were found to be "masses of virtually pure collagen" and not to have the "biochemical characteristics of invertebrate collagen, nor the collagen fiber arrangement of octopus mantle". The results suggest the samples are "large pieces of vertebrate skin ... from a huge Homeotherm ".Pierce, S., G. Smith, T. Maugel & E. Clark 1995. On the Giant Octopus (''Octopus giganteus'') and the Bermuda Blob: Homage to A. E. Verrill. ''Biol. Bull.'' 188: 219-230. REGIONAL NAMES FOR COLOSSAL OCTOPUS SEE ALSO
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