Fossil evidence suggests there were real 'Kraken' – giant octopuses that fed on large animals at the top of the food chain – in ancient Cretaceous oceans, according to scientists at Hokkaido University in Japan. Their study on prehistoric cephalopods, which include octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish, was published in the journal Science.
Discovery of Nanaimoteuthis jeletzkyi
Through high-resolution grinding tomography combined with machine learning, researchers identified beak fossil remains from extinct cephalopods that measured up to 7–19 meters long. These creatures occupied the top position in food webs, preying on other marine organisms, including vertebrates like mosasaurs and sharks. The cephalopods used their very hard beaks as crushing tools to kill prey, which included crustaceans, bony fish, and animals living on the ocean floor. This discovery fundamentally reshapes our understanding of ancient marine ecosystems, illustrating that cephalopods were far more dominant than previously believed. The findings reveal these massive cephalopods were formidable apex predators, significantly altering historical ecological perspectives.
Evidence of Apex Predation and Advanced Cognitive Behaviour
Researchers found heavy-duty wear patterns on the fossilised beaks, including chipped and scratched marks. In some specimens, up to 10 per cent of the beak tip was worn away. This amount of wear is consistent with cephalopods crushing and eating very hard-shelled organisms, as well as bony organisms. The wear pattern on some beaks was asymmetric, indicating that these cephalopods had a lateralized preference for which direction they used to accomplish certain tasks. Along with their size and hunting strategies, this shows evidence of advanced cognitive abilities similar to modern intelligent cephalopods.
Digital Three-Dimensional Revealed a Hidden 60-Foot Predator
Due to the rarity of fossilised remains from soft-bodied organisms such as octopuses, these samples have been covered in rock concretions for millions of years. Scientists used an innovative method called 'digital fossil-mining,' utilising high-resolution grinding tomography to expose the jaws internally via a combination of AI-facilitated 3D reconstruction. According to Science, their results confirmed that these 60-foot-long creatures existed, extending the known evolutionary record for finned octopuses by 15 million years and the broader octopus record by 5 million years.
