Episode 2 of 4

Verrill's Initial Identification

When: 1897-01 to 1897-04
Where: St. Augustine, Florida
Part of: St. Augustine Monster carcass washed ashore

Alpheus Hyatt Verrill identified the carcass as a giant squid, later naming it Octopus giganteus.

Alpheus Hyatt Verrill initially suggested the carcass was a giant squid. In the January 1897 issue of the American Journal of Science, he wrote about it. In February 1897, he gave the animal the scientific name Octopus giganteus. Drawings based on photographs were published in the American Naturalist in April 1897.

Sources

St. Augustine Monster Wikipedia, revision of 2026-05-29

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.