Hail squid: a vampire worthy of a boss
Researchers from Yale University and the American Museum of Natural History have identified the closest known relatives of octopuses and vampire squids, naming them 46and President of the United States.
Syllipsimopodi Bideni It had 10 arms, fins, and rows of prey to catch prey. It lived 328 million years ago and represents a new species of vampyropod, a group of marine animals that includes modern octopuses and the vampire squid.
The researchers named the animal following President Joseph Biden to honor the new president, who had just taken office at the time the study was submitted for publication, and to appreciate his commitment to science.
But the chief’s name is only part of the meaning of the animal.
“Our findings suggest that the earliest vampire bats, at least outwardly, resembled the squids that live today,” said Christopher Wallen, a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Washington. Yale and the American Museum of Natural History.
An artist’s reconstruction of a newly described 328-million-year-old piglet. Credit: © K. Whalen
Whalen is the lead author of a study in the journal nature communications regarding the discovery.
«Syllipsimopodi Bideni It also challenges prevailing arguments regarding the origins of the vampyropod and provides a new model for the evolution of endocephalic cephalopods.”
Whalen and co-author Neil Landman of the American Museum of Natural History made the identification from a specimen originally discovered in central Montana, now part of the Royal Ontario Museum’s collection.
Syllipsimopodi Bideni It extends the vampire fossil record by regarding 82 million years. It is the only known vampyropod to have 10 functional arms. By contrast, octopuses have eight arms and modern vampire squids have eight arms and two hairs. The squid and other modern squids have 10 arms.
The first bloodsuckers like Syllipsimopodi Bideni It also possesses a dissected piece called a gladius, the remains of a flattened, semi-transparent inner shell.
“Today, only squid and their relatives and vampire squid have gladius,” Wallen said. “Octopuses have shrunk them into fins or brackets, which are small, solid, rod-shaped structures.”
wallen said Syllipsimopodi Bideni It had a torpedo-shaped body. Her fins were large enough, perhaps, to act as stabilizers and help her swim. One pair of her arms was much longer than the other four, similar to the elongated tentacles of the modern squid. The researchers speculate that Syllipsimopodi Bideni It used its longer arms to capture prey, possibly smaller animals that had been shelled, and its shorter arms to hold and manipulate prey.
As for why researchers named the animal following Biden, Wallen said the post was accepted shortly following the president’s inauguration and the Jan. 6 uprising on Capitol Hill.
“In a way I wanted to acknowledge the moment in a more positive and forward-looking way,” he said.
“I am encouraged by President Biden’s plans to address anthropogenic climate change and his general sentiment that politicians should listen to scientists,” Wallen added.
Reference: “Fossil Cephalopods from Mississippi Beer Gulch Lagerstat Shed Light on Early Vampire Evolution” by Christopher D. Allen and Neil H. Landmann, March 8, 2022 Available here. nature communications.
DOI: 10.1038 / s41467-022-28333-5
Grants from a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Biology Program of the National Science Foundation and the Paleontological Society funded the research.