New Vampire Squid Species From Early Jurassic Buried With Prey in Its Arm Discovered in Luxembourg

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Citron / CC BY-SA 3.0)
A New Vampire Squid Species From the Early Jurassic Buried With Prey in Its arms discovered in Luxembourg

Vampire squids are not real squids and are more closely related to octopuses. Only one species had survived, but a new one was discovered to have existed 180 million years ago.

New Vampire Squid Species

In a new study, three German paleontologists found a fossilized vampire squid from the Early Jurassic era. In the paper, Dirk Fuchs, Ben Thuy, and Robert Weis explain the fossil's condition, finding location, and similarities to contemporary vampire squids.

The team unearthed fossilized remains of a vampire squid (vampyromorph) in 2022 at an excavation site near Bascharage, Luxembourg. They named the new species Simoniteuthis michaelyi.

The researchers discovered the fossil to be in superb preservation and a full specimen, enabling a thorough examination. Moreover, they learned that the animal had perished while devouring two tiny fish, which is unusual for any fossil.

It was 38 cm in length. They characterize the discovery as remarkable because of the high degree of preservation. They were able to examine what were formerly soft tissue structures, such as the muscles and eyes.

According to an earlier study, the vampyromorph may have resided in the shallows off the coast of an island that formerly stood in the center of the European peninsula.

According to the research team, the unusual circumstances surrounding the squid's demise allowed for its extraordinary level of preservation. It seemingly focused on its double catch and forgot to breathe. It was still holding the prey when it was buried.

The animal would have choked to death from the low oxygen content of the water at the sea's bottom where it had gone. That would have killed the squid and kept other animals from grazing on its carcass, allowing it to be buried whole on the seafloor.

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Rare Vampire Squid Discovered in South China Sea

In 2016, another vampire squid was spotted in the South China Sea at a depth of around 3,300 feet. The specimen known as V. southchinaseais was thought by the researchers to be a possible representative of a completely new species.

A follow-up investigation was carried out by the Chinese scientists who had caught the deep-sea species. Throughout the process, they snapped multiple pictures.

The scientists declared that it ought to be regarded as a novel species of vampire squid in a study released in February 2023. It's unknown whether there are any additional vampire squid species. Scholars have attempted to answer the query.

While just one species of vampire squid has been identified, Bruce Robison, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, noted that several vampire squids had distinct appearances.

The vampire squids seen in other regions of the world are reportedly black, but those seen off the coast of California have a reddish-rust tint. Although Vampyroteuthis infernalis has been the only recognized species to date, the authors contended that morphological variations seen between specimens from the Gulf of Guinea, Africa, and California have raised the potential that other species may exist.

Again, vampire squids are not actual squids. Members of this family can be identified in the fossil record because, in contrast to squid, they have two filaments in addition to their eight arms. However, they are still not well understood.