Business · Ars Technica
Meet the 19-meter Cretaceous kraken that swam with mosasaurs
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Some 80 million years ago, the late Cretaceous oceans were patrolled by 17-meter mosasaurs, long-necked plesiosaurs, and massive, predatory sharks.
Key facts
- Some 80 million years ago, the late Cretaceous oceans were patrolled by 17-meter mosasaurs, long-necked plesiosaurs, and massive, predatory sharks
- According to the study, Nanaimoteuthis haggarti, the species this jaw belonged to, may have reached between 6.6 and 18.6 meters in total length
- The team already knew that the jaws were large, but the body size estimates were striking
- Researchers have uncovered the fossilized remains of ancient, finned octopuses that likely reached lengths of up to 19 meters
Summary
However, a new Science paper argues there was another apex predator lurking in the depths, and it didn’t have a single bone in its body. “Before this study, Cretaceous marine ecosystems were generally understood as worlds in which large vertebrate predators occupied the top of the food web,” said Yasuhiro Iba, a paleontologist at Hokkaido University and co-author of the study. The reason it has taken so long to place a giant octopus at the top of the Mesozoic food chain is that octopuses are highly organized bags of water and muscle. To find them, Iba’s team deployed a technique they called Digital Fossil Mining. Instead of relying on traditional imaging techniques based on X-rays, Iba and his colleagues used high-resolution grinding tomography to physically shave away microscopic layers of the rock.