Possible Kraken Discovered
Posted by Shari Horowitz in Tropical Fish Hobbyist Blog on October 11, 2011 at 8:39 am
By David E. Boruchowitz
The cephalopod believed to have killed ichthyosaurs arranged their vertebral disks in linear patterns in such a way that it resembled the pattern of sucker discs on a cephalopod tentacle, with each vertebra strongly resembling a coleoid sucker. Photograph by Mark McMenamin.
During the Triassic bus-sized ichthyosaurs (marine reptiles) filled the niche occupied by predatory whales today. They were considered top predators until a paleontologist studying fossils in Nevada proposed a startling explanation for the ordered placement of ichthyosaur bones—a giant cephalopod ate the 45-foot reptiles.
Like the mythical kraken, this gargantuan octopus-like creature would have been an intelligent predator, able to drown or otherwise kill full-grown ichthyosaur. Of course, being a soft-bodied invertebrate, it would not be likely to have left fossils, so its careful arrangement of its prey’s bones may be the only record we’ll ever have of it.
Tags: cephalopod, fossil, icthyosaur, invertebrate, kraken, marine reptile, octopus, Triassic
