US EditionAncient squids dominated the ocean 100 million years ago, fossil discovery technique reveals
- A team of Japanese and German paleontologists used digital fossil-mining to uncover around 1,000 squid beaks in 100-million-year-old rocks, revealing their dominance during the Cretaceous period.
- Facing poor preservation of soft-bodied squids, researchers developed grinding tomography to digitize rocks and expose hidden fossils from 100 million years ago.
- Evidence shows 1,000 cephalopod beaks, 263 squid specimens, including ~40 new species, with squid fossils outnumbering ammonites and fishes.
- Consequently, the study demands recalibration of marine paleoenvironments while Yasuhiro Iba stated, “These findings change everything we thought we knew about marine ecosystems in the past.”
- Beyond the previous models, findings position squids as early predators shaping ancient ecosystems 100 million years ago, challenging beliefs they only flourished after the dinosaur extinction.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Predatory squid likely dominated ancient oceans
Ancient oceans were likely dominated by predatory squid, a new fossil-hunting technique suggested. Soft-bodied creatures like squid leave few fossils, unlike their shelled relatives ammonites and belemnites, meaning little is known of their evolutionary history. Japanese scientists scanned and digitized large chunks of rock from 100-million-year-old seabeds and found that they were full of fossilized squid beaks, suggesting that squid far outnum…
Discovery changes the vision of ancient marine ecosystems and was possible thanks to a technique developed by researchers from a Japanese University called "digital fossil mining".
40 Never-Before-Seen Squid Species Found in 100-Million-Year-Old Fossils
A groundbreaking discovery in the world of paleontology has revealed the presence of 40 previously unknown species of ancient squid, locked away in a 100-million-year-old rock. Using an innovative fossil analysis technique, researchers from Japan and Germany have uncovered a treasure trove of cephalopod beaks from the Cretaceous period. This fascinating study, published in Science, challenges long-held assumptions about the role squids played in…
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