Giant Octopuses Lived with Dinosaurs
Scientists have found fossils of huge ancient octopuses. These animals lived in the oceans 100 million years ago, at the same time as dinosaurs. A team from Hokkaido University in Japan studied old jaw bones from Japan and Vancouver Island. The fossils show these octopuses grew to nearly 20 metres long. They were as big as the largest sea reptiles of their day.
Before this study, scientists thought the oldest octopuses with fins lived only about 15 million years ago. Octopuses have soft bodies, so they almost never become fossils. Only the hard jaw bones survive. To find the tiny jaws, the team used a special method called grinding tomography along with a computer model. The fossils belong to an extinct group of octopuses called Cirrata. They had strong jaws that could crush hard prey.
The most surprising thing was the wear on the jaws. Up to 10% of the tip was chipped, scratched, or cracked. That is more damage than we see in any octopus today. This means the ancient animals had a strong, aggressive way of eating. They probably attacked their prey with great force. The discovery changes the old idea that only animals with bones ruled the seas at the time of the dinosaurs.