Scientists have uncovered a long-lost secret about ancient squids. A team from Hokkaido University has developed an advanced technique to digitize fossils and discovered that these cephalopods were the ocean’s top predators 100 million years ago.
The breakthrough allowed researchers to identify over 1,000 fossilized squid beaks, including 263 specimens of the ancient creatures themselves. These finds provide valuable clues for understanding how squids evolved.
Historically, squids are rarely preserved as fossils due to their lack of hard shells. However, the team’s digital technique shed new light on these enigmatic animals. The research revealed that squid fossils outnumbered those of ammonites and bony fishes, indicating that they were a dominant force in ancient oceans.
“Unlike previously thought, these ancient squids clearly prevailed the seas,” said Dr. Shin Ikegami, the study’s lead author. “Their body sizes were as large as fish and even bigger than the ammonites we found alongside them.”
The study also showed that modern squid groups, such as Myopsida and Oegopsida, had already emerged around 100 million years ago. This challenges existing theories that squids only began to flourish after a mass extinction event.
“Squids were probably the pioneers of fast and intelligent swimmers in the ocean,” said Associate Professor Yasuhiro Iba, who led the study. The findings change our understanding of marine ecosystems in the past and shed new light on these fascinating creatures.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-06-ancient-squids-dominated-ocean-million.html