The body of a creature the size of a fist was buried in the shallow bay of Montana. A new paper published in Nature Communications provides some interesting insights into the ancient cephalopod.
There is a triangular pen of hard tissue inside the body of Syllipsimopodi bideni. It's a unique find because squishy animals tend to degrade quickly after death and rarely make good fossils.
The Royal Ontario Museum in Canada received the fossil in 1988 after it was discovered. It was largely ignored for more than 30 years until American paleontologists decided to study it.
Joe Biden was the 46th president of the United States. When the study was submitted for publication, the authors wanted to recognize Biden's commitment to science.
Some of the mollusks on our planet are fascinating. They have conquered every ocean, survived the five biggest extinctions, and now number around 800 species.
Cuttlefishes, nautilus and the extinct belemnites are among the extinct belemnites. Their ecological roles are vital for healthy oceans.
An exceptional fossil.
Ammonites and their relatives are important tools for geologists, who use the unique patterns on their tough coiled shells to identify layers of rock around the world. When animals die, the flesh of their bodies usually rots away, leaving little, if anything, behind. We will probably never know what the relationships were between the vast majority of species.
Genetic studies have defined two major living groups, the squid relatives and the octopus relatives. The full story of their evolution has remained unresolved because genetic material cannot be taken from fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old.
The soft parts of an animal can be found in the rock. The Bear Gulch Limestone fossil site is famous for this kind of preservation and provides incredibly rare insights about these animals. This allowed Whalen and Landman to give a description of some of the parts of the new species.
Vampires from hell.
The authors think that Syllipsimopodi bideni is the oldest member of the group. The group of cephalopods includes modern octopuses and squid.
The vampire squid may be new to you. Vampyroteuthis infernalis is the only surviving species of squid that is related to octopuses.
Vampyroteuthis infernalis lives a quiet life, drifting in deep oceans around the world in waters almost devoid of oxygen and in pitch darkness. It is not worthy of its fearsome name.
The vampire has primitive features in common with the new species, such as ten limbs and a stiff internal shell. No living animal has either of these.
It was thought that the octopus relatives originated in the Triassic period. The new species pushes back the time between humans and the rex by more than 80 million years.
A day in the life.
The authors looked at the animal's ecology beyond what this fossil can tell us. The rounded fins on either side of the creature's body probably helped it move through the water.
One pair of arms is longer than the others, suggesting they were used to catch prey, while the suckers may have helped it manipulate its food. It is interesting that Syllipsimopodi bideni lived in a similar way to true squid today.
The fossil is a new piece of the puzzle and it is fascinating.
Journal information: Nature CommunicationsThis article is free to use under a Creative Commons license. The original article is worth a read.
Citation: Meet the 10-armed, 325-million-year-old octopus fossil named after President Joe Biden (2022, March 9) retrieved 9 March 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-armed-million-year-old-octopus-fossil-joe.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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