Anonymousabout 4 hours ago
A study published in Science in April 2026 describes 27 fossilized beak specimens from two species of giant finned octopuses — Nanaimoteuthis jeletzkyi and Nanaimoteuthis haggarti — that lived 100 to 72 million years ago and may have reached lengths of up to 18.6 meters, rivaling mosasaurs as top marine predators. The findings, based on fossils from Vancouver Island and Hokkaido, Japan, challenge the long-held assumption that only vertebrates occupied apex predator niches in Cretaceous oceans, though some paleontologists urge caution about extrapolating body size from jaw fossils alone.