This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A "peculiar" new species of Jurassic squid-like animal has been unearthed in Wyoming, U.S., following the discovery of two exceptionally rare fossils dating to around 160 million years ago. The newly named species, Wyoteuthis linsterorum, has been identified as a type of ancient cephalopod called a belemnite, a cousin of modern squid and octopus.
Its unusually thick, barrel-shaped skeleton makes it the "chunkiest" or "fattest" belemnite ever discovered. An international team of researchers from the U.S., U.K. and New Zealand, including Dr. Dean Lomax, honorary research fellow at The University of Manchester, described the discovery in the journal Papers in Palaeontology.
Belemnites are among the most common fossils found worldwide and are recognized by their bullet-shaped remains, known as a rostrum or guard. Millions have been discovered in Wyoming's Sundance Formation, an ancient inland sea that once covered the western U.S. Co-author and Wyoming paleontologist Jessica Lippincott said that in Wyoming, they are nicknamed "squid butts." Most Wyoming belemnites are bullet-shaped, measuring around 5 to 10 centimeters long (2 to 4 inches) and only 1 to 2 centimeters wide (0.4 to 0.8 inches).
By contrast, the newly discovered species had an unusually broad, barrel-shaped rostrum around 10 centimeters long (4 inches) but up to 6 centimeters wide (2.4 inches), making it the thickest belemnite ever recorded. Researchers estimate the living animal would have reached around 60 centimeters (24 inches) in total length, including its arms. The work was instigated by Wyoming paleontologist and co-author Bill Wahl, who has spent much of his career searching for fossils in Wyoming and said this belemnite "stuck out like a sore thumb." He brought together an international team of researchers to investigate the remarkable specimens, including belemnite expert Alexey Ippolitov, now at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Using computed tomography (CT) scanning, the team was able to examine the fossils without damaging them, revealing internal features that confirmed the animal belonged to an ancient family of belemnites previously thought to have disappeared millions of years earlier. Ippolitov said he was "deeply surprised" to discover a fossil from such a well-studied group that differed so radically from anything previously known. After more than 200 years of paleontological research on belemnites, he said, discoveries like this are exceptionally rare.
Ippolitov explained, "A possible explanation is that their relatively large size gave them an advantage when hunting co-occurring smaller belemnites of the genus Pachyteuthis. Modern squid, after all, are hardly picky when it comes to prey: they readily hunt not only other species of cephalopods, but sometimes even their own kind." The discovery was almost 30 years in the making. The first specimen was unearthed in the late 1990s by Dr.
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