Squid dominated oceans millions of years ago scientists say
What are Cephalopods?
Cephalopods - a group of marine animals which include squid - have been swimming in our oceans for millions of years. However, not much is known about ancient squid, as they are rarely preserved. This is because they are soft-bodied and don't have hard shells, meaning they rarely turn into fossils.A team of international scientists, led by experts at Hokkaido University in Japan, developed a new advanced technique to scan rocks.This allowed them identify one thousand fossilised cephalopod beaks hidden inside rocks, which dated back to the late Cretaceous period.Among these small beaks were 263 squid specimens, including about 40 different types that had never been seen before.What surprised scientists was how common squids were in ancient oceans. The team found that squid fossils were far greater in number than those of other bony fish and ammonites.
Author of the study, Dr Shin Ikegami, from Hokkaido University explained: "In both number and size, these ancient squids clearly prevailed the seas."Their body sizes were as large as fish and even bigger than the ammonites we found alongside them. "This shows us that squids were thriving as the most abundant swimmers in the ancient ocean," he added.The team hope that their new technique could help us better understand ancient marine ecosystems.
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