<h1>The United States discovered a giant prehistoric squid capable of eating dragons</h1>
Not long ago, the body of a giant squid was found off the coast of Japan, so everyone's interest in the giant squid was raised again. The biggest cephalopods in the ocean today are the famous king squid and the middle-clawed squid, which have become the nightmare of many people about the unknown deep sea. In prehistoric times, there lived in the oceans with a larger squid, the Tost giant squid.
Cretaceous shortswords
Tusoteuthis is a mollusk that makes it difficult to leave fossils due to the lack of calcareous hard bones on its body. Compared to the Tost giant squid, its distant relatives ammonite and nautilus, the stiff shell is more likely to retain the formation of fossils.
Note: The fossil of the Tost giant squid, found in Kansas, USA, is from the Internet
Note: The Tost giant squid can be preserved in its inner shell, and the image comes from the Internet
In fact, inside the body of the Tost giant squid, there is a sword-like inner shell, which is shaped like an oval-shaped body like a sword handle, and the long protrusion resembles a sword god. It was these inner shells that became fossils, leaving us with clues to trace this prehistoric sea monster. Paleontologists have found fragments of the inner shell of the Tost giant squid in central North America, and some of the more complete fossils show that it is quite large.
Illustration: Almost intact fossil inner shell of tontos giant squid, picture from the network
Photo note: Fossil fragments of tonster squid found in Kansas, picture to the web
The king squid of the age of the dinosaurs?
Picture note: King Squid, picture from the internet
Image note: Refer to the Tost giant squid restored by the king squid, the picture comes from the Internet
Illustration: Refer to the comparison between the tost giant squid restored by the king squid and the human body size, the picture comes from the Network
After discovering the fossils of the Tost giant squid, paleontologists applied the body structure and proportions of the king squid to it, and restored a large guy with a total length of more than 10 meters and a carcass length of more than 2 meters. Compared with the king squid, the Tost giant squid is about the same size.
Like the King Squid, the Tost Giant Squid has ten tentacles, two of which are long, almost half of the total length. The Tost giant squid is a ferocious carnivore that feeds mainly on other cephalopods, small fish and marine reptiles, and is even brainwashed to compensate for its predation on the Cretaceous tyrannosaurs.
Image note: Tost giant squid prey on the dragons, image from the Internet
Just when we have become accustomed to the Tost giant squid being the king squid of the Cretaceous, the latest research shows that the Tost giant squid is more closely related to today's vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) and belongs to the cephalopod-suborder-ghost slugs -Mesoteuthina family in taxonomy. The new study changed the appearance of the Tost giant squid, which is likely to resemble a vampire squid.
Image note: Vampire squid, picture from the web
Image note: The vampire squid is in various forms, the picture comes from the network
Despite the domineering name of the vampire squid, the vampire squid is actually fat in appearance, as if it were red jelly. Unlike the King Squid, the Vampire Squid has only eight tentacles, a membrane between the tentacles and the tentacles, and a tooth spike on the tentacles. There is also a pair of large fins on either side of the vampire squid's body that can help swim.
Illustration: The newly restored Tost giant squid compares with the human body size, picture from the Internet
If the body structure of the vampire squid is applied, the length of the Tost giant squid will shrink to about 7 meters (mainly without long predatory tentacles). Despite its shortening , tost ' the giant squid has become fatter , gaining weight and increasing in weight , becoming the largest known subclass of pupae , the largest squid , on Earth.
Illustration: Regarding the two restorations of the Tost giant squid, the picture comes from the Internet
Living in treacherous shallow seas
Picture note: Western Inland SeaWay, picture from the network
The Tost giant squid lived in the late Cretaceous period, 80 to 70 million years ago, in central North America. During the Cretaceous period, North America was once separated by a wide inland sea, the Western Interior Seaway. The western inland seaway is connected to the Arctic Ocean to the north and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, dividing the whole of North America in two.
Predators living in the Western Inland Sea Lanes, image from the Internet
The Western Inland Seaway is a shallow sea, and many marine life live here, many of which are murderous killers, so it is also known as the "Hell's Aquarium". Even a big guy like the Tost giant squid struggled to survive in the western inland waterways, and paleontologists have found many evidences of predation, the most famous fossil being a fossil of a chalk fish (Cimolichthys), a 1.52-meter-long fish with a 0.6-meter-long inner shell in its stomach. Judging by the fossil preservation, the chalk attacked a juvenile Tost giant squid from behind and was choked to death by its prey while trying to swallow it all. In addition to chalk fossils, paleontologists have also found bite marks on some fossils of Tost giant squid, indicating that they were also preyed upon by dragons.
Image note: Fossils of chalk fish choked to death by Tost giant squid, image from the Internet
Illustration: A restoration of the chalk fish preying on the Tost giant squid, picture from the Internet
As a giant squid, the Tost giant squid is one of the predators, but it is still one step away from the top predators. In the treacherous Western Inland Waterway, the Tost squid is both a hunter and a prey.
Picture note: Small dragon and Tost giant squid, picture from the internet
The Tost giant squid eventually became extinct in the Mesozoic Era, and its close relative, the vampire squid, fled to the deep sea below 1,000 meters under the predation pressure of plesiosaurs, allowing them to survive the mass extinction and survive to this day. There are still too many unknowns about the Tost giant squid, and only more fossils can help us understand this mysterious prehistoric giant squid.
Resources:
1.Eyden, Phil (January 2006). "Tusoteuthis and the Cretaceous Giant Squids". Tonmo.com. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
2.Everhart, Mike (2007). Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic. p. 92. ISBN 1426200854.
3.Kauffman, E. G. (1990). "Cretaceous fish predation on a large squid". In Boucot, A. J. Evolutionary Paleobiology and Coevolution. Amsterdam: Elsevier. pp. 195–196.
5.Image of fossil Cimolichthys with swallowed T. longa gladius at Oceans of Kansas Paleontology website
Image / Network (Intrusion and Deletion)
Text / Paleontological Exploration (Jiang Hong)
Typography / Paleontological exploration