ScienceDaily
Your source for the latest research news
Follow Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Subscribe RSS Feeds Newsletters
New:
  • Proteins That Predict Future Dementia Risk
  • How and When the Milky Way Came Together
  • Rare COVID-19 Response in Children Explained
  • Harvesting Light Like Nature Does
  • Optimizing the Immune System to Fight Cancer
  • Virtual Reality Warps Your Sense of Time
  • Mammals Can Use Their Intestines to Breathe
  • Which Animals Will Survive Climate Change?
  • Antarctic Ice Sheet Retreat: Chain Reaction?
  • Harnessing the Hum of Fluorescent Lights
advertisement
Follow all of ScienceDaily's latest research news and top science headlines!
Science News
from research organizations

1

2

Giant 'kraken' lair discovered: Cunning sea monster that preyed on ichthyosaurs

Date:
October 10, 2011
Source:
Geological Society of America
Summary:
Long before whales, the oceans of Earth were roamed by a very different kind of air-breathing leviathan. Snaggle-toothed ichthyosaurs larger than school buses swam at the top of the Triassic Period ocean food chain, or so it seemed before paleontologist Mark McMenamin took a look at some of their remains in Nevada. Now he thinks there was an even larger and more cunning sea monster that preyed on ichthyosaurs: a 'kraken' of such mythological proportions it would have sent Captain Nemo running for dry land.
Share:
FULL STORY

Long before whales, the oceans of Earth were roamed by a very different kind of air-breathing leviathan. Snaggle-toothed ichthyosaurs larger than school buses swam at the top of the Triassic Period ocean food chain, or so it seemed before Mount Holyoke College paleontologist Mark McMenamin took a look at some of their remains in Nevada. Now he thinks there was an even larger and more cunning sea monster that preyed on ichthyosaurs: a 'kraken' of such mythological proportions it would have sent Captain Nemo running for dry land.

advertisement

McMenamin is presenting the results of his work on Oct. 10 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Minneapolis.

The evidence is at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada, where McMenamin and his daughter spent a few days this summer. It's a site where the remains of nine 45-foot (14-meter) ichthyosaurs, of the species Shonisaurus popularis can be found. These were the Triassic's counterpart to today's predatory giant squid-eating sperm whales. But the fossils at the Nevada site have a long history of perplexing researchers, including the world's expert on the site: the late Charles Lewis Camp of U.C. Berkeley.

"Charles Camp puzzled over these fossils in the 1950s," said McMenamin. "In his papers he keeps referring to how peculiar this site is. We agree, it is peculiar."

Camp's interpretation was that the fossils probably represented death by an accidental stranding or from a toxic plankton bloom. But no one had ever been able to prove that the beasts died in shallow water. In fact more recent work on the rocks around the fossils suggest it was a deep water environment, which makes neatly arranged carcasses even more mysterious.

This question -- shallow or deep ocean death -- is what attracted McMenamin to the site.

advertisement

"I was aware that anytime there is controversy about depth, there is probably something interesting going on," McMenamin said. And when they arrived at the remote state park and started looking at the fossils, McMenamin was struck by their strangeness.

"It became very clear that something very odd was going on there," said McMenamin. "It was a very odd configuration of bones."

First of all, the different degrees of etching on the bones suggested that the shonisaurs were not all killed and buried at the same time. It also looked like the bones had been purposefully rearranged. That it got him thinking about a particular modern predator that is known for just this sort of intelligent manipulation of bones.

"Modern octopus will do this," McMenamin said. What if there was an ancient, very large sort of octopus, like the kraken of mythology. "I think that these things were captured by the kraken and taken to the midden and the cephalopod would take them apart."

In the fossil bed, some of the shonisaur vertebral disks are arranged in curious linear patterns with almost geometric regularity, McMenamin explained.The proposed Triassic kraken, which could have been the most intelligent invertebrate ever, arranged the vertebral discs in double line patterns, with individual pieces nesting in a fitted fashion as if they were part of a puzzle.

advertisement

Even more creepy: The arranged vertebrae resemble the pattern of sucker discs on a cephalopod tentacle, with each vertebra strongly resembling a coleoid sucker. In other words, the vertebral disc "pavement" seen at the state park may represent the earliest known self portrait.

But could an octopus really have taken out such huge swimming predatory reptiles? No one would have believed such a tale until the staff of the Seattle Aquarium set up a video camera at night a few years ago to find out what was killing the sharks in one of their large tanks. What they were shocked to discover was that a large octopus they had in the same tank was the culprit. The video of one of these attacks is available on the web to anyone who uses the search terms "shark vs octopus."

"We think that this cephalopod in the Triassic was doing the same thing," said McMenamin. Among the evidences of the kraken attacks are many more ribs broken in the shonisaur fossils than would seem accidental and the twisted necks of the ichthyosaurs. "It was either drowning them or breaking their necks."

Of course, it's the perfect Triassic crime because octopuses are mostly soft-bodied and don't fossilize well. Only their beaks, or mouth parts, are hard and the chances of those being preserved nearby are very low. That means the evidence for the murderous Kraken is circumstantial, which may leave some scientists rather skeptical. But McMenamin is not worried.

"We're ready for this," he said. "We have a very good case."

make a difference: sponsored opportunity

Story Source:

Materials provided by Geological Society of America. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Cite This Page:

  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
Geological Society of America. "Giant 'kraken' lair discovered: Cunning sea monster that preyed on ichthyosaurs." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 October 2011. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111010075530.htm>.
Geological Society of America. (2011, October 10). Giant 'kraken' lair discovered: Cunning sea monster that preyed on ichthyosaurs. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 19, 2021 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111010075530.htm
Geological Society of America. "Giant 'kraken' lair discovered: Cunning sea monster that preyed on ichthyosaurs." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111010075530.htm (accessed May 19, 2021).

  • RELATED TOPICS
    • Plants & Animals
      • Fish
      • Marine Biology
      • Sea Life
    • Earth & Climate
      • Earth Science
      • Geography
      • Environmental Awareness
    • Fossils & Ruins
      • Fossils
      • Evolution
      • Ancient DNA
advertisement

  • RELATED TERMS
    • Evolution of cetaceans
    • Sperm Whale
    • Baleen whale
    • Ocean acidification
    • Sea turtle
    • Ocean
    • Gray Whale
    • Coast

1

2

3

4

5
RELATED STORIES

New Study Reveals How Reptiles Divided Up the Spoils in Ancient Seas
Sep. 30, 2020 — While dinosaurs ruled the land in the Mesozoic, the oceans were filled by predators such as crocodiles and giant lizards, but also entirely extinct groups such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Now ...
Prehistoric Sea Creatures Evolved Pebble-Shaped Teeth to Crush Shellfish
May 8, 2020 — Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles during the time of the dinosaurs, and scientists don't know much about their ancestry. But by CT-scanning the fossil of one of the first ichthyosaurs, scientists ...
Ancient Reptile Mystery Solved as Two Extinct Species Found to Be the Same
Mar. 8, 2017 — Ichthyosaurs, which are similar-shaped to dolphins and sharks, but are reptiles, swam the seas for millions of years during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. They were the first, large ...
Rapid Rise of the Mesozoic Sea Dragons
May 20, 2016 — In the Mesozoic, the time of the dinosaurs, from 252 to 66 million years ago, marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs were top predators in the oceans. But their origins and early rise ...
FROM AROUND THE WEB

ScienceDaily shares links with sites in the TrendMD network and earns revenue from third-party advertisers, where indicated.
  Print   Email   Share

advertisement

1

2

3

4

5
Most Popular
this week

PLANTS & ANIMALS
(c) (c) SciePro / AdobeThe Cerebellum May Have Played an Important Role in the Evolution of the Human Brain
(c) (c) Vladimir Wrangel / AdobeSharks Use Earth's Magnetic Fields to Guide Them Like a Map
(c) (c) Art789 / AdobeBats Know the Speed of Sound from Birth, Scientists Discovery
EARTH & CLIMATE
(c) (c) Alexander Potapov / AdobeEarliest Evidence of Humans Changing Ecosystems With Fire
(c) (c) NickMo / AdobeGenetic Effects of Chernobyl Radiation
(c) (c) JSirlin / AdobeLightning and Subvisible Discharges Produce Molecules That Clean the Atmosphere
FOSSILS & RUINS
Boy or Girl? It's in the Father's Genes
(c) (c) Bruder / AdobeA New Perspective on the Genomes of Archaic Humans
(c) (c) Mat Hayward / AdobeMammals Evolved Big Brains After Big Disasters
advertisement

Strange & Offbeat
 

PLANTS & ANIMALS
How to Become 'Ant-I-Social'
Study Confirms Origin of Vervet Monkeys Living Near an Urban Airport for Decades
Engineered Organism Could Diagnose Crohn's Disease Flareups
EARTH & CLIMATE
(c) (c) creativenature.nl / AdobeMammals Can Use Their Intestines to Breathe
New Snailfish Genome Reveals How They Adapted to the Pressures of Deep-Sea Life
Kelp, Maggots and Mycoprotein Among Future Foods That Must Be Mass-Farmed to Combat Malnutrition
FOSSILS & RUINS
Scientists Explore Tesla Roads Not Taken -- And Find New Potential Present-Day Utility
Giant Sea Lizard Fossil Shows Diversity of Life Before Asteroid Hit
Study of Ancient Corals in Indonesia Reveals Slowest Earthquake Ever Recorded
SD
  • SD
    • Home Page
    • Top Science News
    • Latest News
  • Home
    • Home Page
    • Top Science News
    • Latest News
  • Health
    • View all the latest top news in the health sciences,
      or browse the topics below:
      Health & Medicine
      • Allergy
      • Alternative Medicine
      • Birth Control
      • Cancer
      • Diabetes
      • Diseases
      • Heart Disease
      • HIV and AIDS
      • Obesity
      • Stem Cells
      • ... more topics
      Mind & Brain
      • ADD and ADHD
      • Addiction
      • Alzheimer's
      • Autism
      • Depression
      • Headaches
      • Intelligence
      • Psychology
      • Relationships
      • Schizophrenia
      • ... more topics
      Living Well
      • Parenting
      • Pregnancy
      • Sexual Health
      • Skin Care
      • Men's Health
      • Women's Health
      • Nutrition
      • Diet and Weight Loss
      • Fitness
      • Healthy Aging
      • ... more topics
  • Tech
    • View all the latest top news in the physical sciences & technology,
      or browse the topics below:
      Matter & Energy
      • Aviation
      • Chemistry
      • Electronics
      • Fossil Fuels
      • Nanotechnology
      • Physics
      • Quantum Physics
      • Solar Energy
      • Technology
      • Wind Energy
      • ... more topics
      Space & Time
      • Astronomy
      • Black Holes
      • Dark Matter
      • Extrasolar Planets
      • Mars
      • Moon
      • Solar System
      • Space Telescopes
      • Stars
      • Sun
      • ... more topics
      Computers & Math
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Communications
      • Computer Science
      • Hacking
      • Mathematics
      • Quantum Computers
      • Robotics
      • Software
      • Video Games
      • Virtual Reality
      • ... more topics
  • Enviro
    • View all the latest top news in the environmental sciences,
      or browse the topics below:
      Plants & Animals
      • Agriculture and Food
      • Animals
      • Biology
      • Biotechnology
      • Endangered Animals
      • Extinction
      • Genetically Modified
      • Microbes and More
      • New Species
      • Zoology
      • ... more topics
      Earth & Climate
      • Climate
      • Earthquakes
      • Environment
      • Geography
      • Geology
      • Global Warming
      • Hurricanes
      • Ozone Holes
      • Pollution
      • Weather
      • ... more topics
      Fossils & Ruins
      • Ancient Civilizations
      • Anthropology
      • Archaeology
      • Dinosaurs
      • Early Humans
      • Early Mammals
      • Evolution
      • Lost Treasures
      • Origin of Life
      • Paleontology
      • ... more topics
  • Society
    • View all the latest top news in the social sciences & education,
      or browse the topics below:
      Science & Society
      • Arts & Culture
      • Consumerism
      • Economics
      • Political Science
      • Privacy Issues
      • Public Health
      • Racial Disparity
      • Religion
      • Sports
      • World Development
      • ... more topics
      Business & Industry
      • Biotechnology & Bioengineering
      • Computers & Internet
      • Energy & Resources
      • Engineering
      • Medical Technology
      • Pharmaceuticals
      • Transportation
      • ... more topics
      Education & Learning
      • Animal Learning & Intelligence
      • Creativity
      • Educational Psychology
      • Educational Technology
      • Infant & Preschool Learning
      • Learning Disorders
      • STEM Education
      • ... more topics
  • Quirky
    • Top News
    • Human Quirks
    • Odd Creatures
    • Bizarre Things
    • Weird World
Free Subscriptions

Get the latest science news with ScienceDaily's free email newsletters, updated daily and weekly. Or view hourly updated newsfeeds in your RSS reader:

  • Email Newsletters
  • RSS Feeds
Follow Us

Keep up to date with the latest news from ScienceDaily via social networks:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
Have Feedback?

Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions?

  • Leave Feedback
  • Contact Us
About This Site  |  Staff  |  Reviews  |  Contribute  |  Advertise  |  Privacy Policy  |  Editorial Policy  |  Terms of Use
Copyright 2021 ScienceDaily or by other parties, where indicated. All rights controlled by their respective owners.
Content on this website is for information only. It is not intended to provide medical or other professional advice.
Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily, its staff, its contributors, or its partners.
Financial support for ScienceDaily comes from advertisements and referral programs, where indicated.
— CCPA: Do Not Sell My Information — — GDPR: Privacy Settings —