Fresh findings:
A key reason the early history of squids remains enigmatic is due to the absence of hard shells, which makes their fossils challenging to locate. Nevertheless, the team redirected their efforts toward uncovering ancient squid beaks—sturdy mouthparts with significant potential for fossilization that could assist in understanding the evolution of squids.
With this objective, the team created a sophisticated fossil detection method that fully digitized rocks, presenting all their embedded fossils in a complete 3D representation. When this technique was applied to Late Cretaceous rocks sourced from Japan, the team discovered 1,000 fossilized cephalopod beaks concealed within the rocks, encompassing 263 squid samples and 40 species of squid previously unidentified.
The researchers pointed out that the quantity of squid fossils they uncovered vastly exceeded the count of bony fishes and ammonites, which are extinct shelled relatives of squids recognized as some of the most proficient swimmers of the Mesozoic period.
“Forty species of squid previously unknown.” Incredible.
As per usual, you can also utilize this squid post as a platform to discuss security-related stories in the news that I may have overlooked.