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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his wife, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Brady Preheim, Marty Rowe, President Elon Musk, President Trump, Stephan Miller, Mike Johnson, J.D. Vance, Vlad Putin, Ted Cruz, Kamala Harris, Trump’s MAGA followers, or my neighbor’s dogs. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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The Kraken
Kraken octopus that existed at the time of the dinosaurs was a 62-foot-long top predator of the oceans. Examination of 27 fossil jaws from finned octopuses test the longstanding belief that the top oceanic predators of the Cretaceous were all vertebrates. Scientists have identified enormous finned kraken octopuses that may have reached up to 62 feet long. The behemoths stalked the oceans during the Cretaceous period and could be the largest invertebrates ever discovered. Fossil jaws revealed distinctive marks that propose these kraken-like octopuses used their powerful jaws to crush hard-shelled prey. Joined with their gigantic size and evidence of intelligence, put them top of the marine food chain These new discoveries are revising the view of the Cretaceous ocean as a world dominated only by large vertebrate predator’s, giant invertebrates octopuses also occupied the top of the food chain. Most generally the top predators were all assumed to be vertebrates, such as mosasaurs and plesiosaurs. Until these findings. Octopuses are known as highly intelligent animals, but they are very difficult to study because they lack hard external shells. Scientists wanted to study the history and evolution of these creatures, so researchers reexamined 15 fossilized octopus jaws previously unearthed in Japan and Vancouver Island. They also discovered 12 new Cretaceous fossil octopus jaws in Japan using state-of-the-art digital fossil-mining technology. Collective, these revealed two species of extinct finned octopuses. The fossils were unearthed in rocks dating to between 100 million and 72 million years ago, pushing back the time frame of the oldest known octopuses by around 5 million years, and finned octopuses by 15 million years. The research team then associated the size, shape and wear marks on all 27 jaws with modern day octopuses to reconstruct their body size, feeding behavior and position in the food chain. The size of living octopuses mantles which is the bulging organ sac sitting above their eyes is related to the length of their jaws. The total length of living long-bodied finned octopuses is around 4.2 times their mantle length. Based on the largest jaw for each species, the researches estimated the maximum length of N. jeletzkyi was around 10 feet to 26 feet, while N. haggarti was approximately 23 feet to 62 feet. This makes N. haggarti potentially the largest invertebrate discovered to date, and among the largest body sizes of all organisms in the Cretaceous oceans, the modern-day giant squid, Architeuthis dux, reach around 40 feet long, and Cretaceous mosasaurs reached approximately 56 feet. The N. jeletzkyi fossils were unearthed in rocks dating to between 100 million and 72 million years ago, pushing back the oldest known octopuses by around 5 million years, and finned octopuses by 15 million years. The kraken jaws also showed signs of intensive wear, with patterns indicating that these animals were dismantling hard-shelled prey using their whole jaws. The front tips on both species' jaws were ground down on one side by as much as 10% of their total size, based on reconstructions. This lopsided loss suggests lateralized behavior. Lateralized behavior is the consistent preference for using one side of the body or processing information with one cerebral hemisphere over the other, observed across vertebrates. This brain asymmetry enhances cognitive efficiency by enabling parallel processing, such as foraging while monitoring for predators. Which means they used their brains to change directions to eat and figure out ways to get their prey. These were not just giant octopuses, but giant, intelligent, and highly formidable marine predators. While these creatures were huge and capable of dominating the oceans, just like modern ocean dwellers, it was and is a long hard treacherous journey to become an adult. Being a top predator you had to start out tiny and often a delectable meal for someone else.
Tammy
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