Jurassic Squid: Reconstructed in 3D, it was a fighter with suckers

It almost looks like an imaginative animal, as its name is one of the most fascinating. This is the “vampire squid that comes from hell”, a mussel of the abyss, of which man knows little or nothing. During prehistoric times, it was the most numerous and diversified specimen. To prove it fossil of one of his ancestors discovered in the 1980s. But only now has this ancestor been analyzed with techniques from 3D reconstruction.

The place of discovery is in France, in the southeastern part, in La Voulte-sur-Rhône, where there is a special formation of fossils. The site dates from the period Jura- about 165 million years ago. Its peculiarity is not only the huge amount of Jurassic marine animals, but also the state in which they are preserved. In fact, the fossil here is not losing soft tissue as usual. The characteristic conditions of the place have allowed the replacement of soft tissues with iron-rich minerals. Here, the reason for their good preservation. Usually the fossils remain flattened, here the fossil has retained its three-dimensionality, so rare.

This allowed the anatomy of the vampire squid to be reconstructed using X-ray to analyze the inside of the animal. The Sorbonne who conducted this research could understand that the animal was a predator from the abyss. It had eight tentacles with losers, between the two they were longer and larger, useful for immobilizing the prey. His muscles were his strength to survive in the depths of the sea. Fundamental to this specimen that only had to run on its own in the middle of nowhere to feed.