Squid are free-swimming mollusks, and like their close relatives the octopods, they are intelligent, predatory, fast-growing and have a depressingly short life span usually lasting merely a year.
The long-finned squid (Loligo pealei), one of about forty species that occur worldwide, is most abundant in the Atlantic and is the animal you are most likely eating when you order calamari. It grows to a little over a foot in length and, like all squid, have ten tentacles surrounding the mouth. These are used to capture prey and transfer them into the beak-like mouth.