Ancient octopus ancestors may have been ‘gigantic’ predators during dinosaur age
The oldest relatives of octopuses, living 100 million years ago, may have been “huge” predators that hunted alongside dinosaurs, according to new research.
Although scientists previously believed that the earliest finned octopuses lived about 15 million years ago, researchers at Hokkaido University found fossilized jaws in Late Cretaceous rock samples, according to a study published Thursday in the journal “Science.”
Because octopuses are soft-bodied animals, they do not fossilize well except for their jaw bones, making it difficult to trace their evolutionary history, researchers explained in a news release.
Researchers used high-resolution grinding tomography and artificial intelligence modeling to find the fossils in rock samples preserved in seafloor sediments from Japan and Vancouver Island between 100 and 72 million years ago.
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The oldest relatives of octopuses, living 100 million years ago, may have been “huge” predators that hunted alongside dinosaurs, according to new research. (Reporters via Hokkaido University/Mark Wilson/Getty)
The Late Cretaceous was the final period of the Mesozoic Era, dominated by dinosaurs, including tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops.
The fossils belonged to an extinct group of finned octopuses known as Cirrata, which researchers believe crushed their prey with powerful jaws.
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Professor Yasuhiro Iba from Hokkaido University said in a statement: “Our findings show that the earliest octopuses were huge predators at the top of the marine food chain during the Cretaceous period.” he said. “Based on exceptionally well-preserved fossil jaws, we show that these animals reached a total length of up to about 20 meters, which may have exceeded the size of large marine reptiles of the same age.”
Illustration of how a fossil jaw fits into the body of an ancient octopus. (Hokkaido University)
Iba added that the most surprising finding was “the extent of wear on the jaws,” which included extensive nicking, scratching and cracking.
“In well-developed specimens, up to 10% of the jaw tip relative to the total jaw length was eroded, which is greater than that seen in modern cephalopods that feed on hard-shelled prey.” “This suggests repeated, robust interactions with their prey and reveals an unexpectedly aggressive feeding strategy.”
Fossil of the jaw of an ancient octopus. (Hokkaido University)
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These findings change the way scientists view predators in the Late Cretaceous period, when vertebrate predators were previously believed to have been dominant, with invertebrates at the bottom of the food chain.
“This study provides the first direct evidence that invertebrates can evolve into giant, intelligent predators in ecosystems dominated by vertebrates for nearly 400 million years,” Iba added. “Our findings suggest that the loss of strong jaws and superficial skeletons, common features of octopuses and marine vertebrates, were necessary for them to become massive, intelligent marine predators.”
