Vampyropods are soft-bodied cephalopods normally identified by eight arms and an internalized chitinous shell or fin supports. Due to the fact that they lack tough structures, Vampyropoda are not well represented in the fossil record. The new research study is based on an incredibly well-preserved vampyropod fossil from the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). Initially found in what is now Montana and donated to ROM in 1988.
Whalen and coauthor Neil Landman, a curator emeritus in the Museums Division of Paleontology, recognized the fossil specimen as an entirely new genus and types that dates to about 328 million years old, making it the oldest recognized vampyropod and extending the fossil record of the group by about 82 million years. In the brand-new study, they likewise describe its 10 arms– all with maintained suckers– corroborating previous clinical arguments that the typical forefather of vampyropods had 10 arms also.
” The arm count is one of the defining qualities separating the 10-armed squid and cuttlefish line (Decabrachia) from the eight armed octopus and vampire squid line (Vampyropoda). We have actually long comprehended that octopuses accomplish the eight arm count through elimination of the two filaments of vampire squid, which these filaments are vestigial arms,” stated Whalen.” However, all previously reported fossil vampyropods maintaining the appendages only have 8 arms, so this fossil is probably the first confirmation of the concept that all cephalopods ancestrally had 10 arms.”
Two of the cephalopods arms appear to have been extended relative to the other 8 arms, and its torpedo-shaped body is reminiscent of todays squids. The fossil was given the name Syllipsimopodi bideni. The genus name is originated from the Greek word “syllípsimos” for “prehensile” and “pódi” for “foot”– due to the fact that this is the oldest known cephalopod to establish suckers, allowing the arms, which are modifications of the molluscan foot, to much better grasp victim and other items. The types name is to honor the recently inaugurated (at the time of paper submission) 46th President of the United States, Joseph R. Biden.
” Syllipsimopodi may have filled a specific niche more similar to extant squids, a midlevel aquatic predator,” said Landman. “It is not unthinkable that it might have used its sucker-laden arms to pry small ammonoids out of their shells or ventured more inshore to take advantage of brachiopods, bivalves, or other shelled marine animals.”
Based upon the age, characters, and phylogenetic position, the fossil obstacles the primary arguments for vampyropod origins, and the authors propose a new model for coleoid (internally shelled cephalopod) development..
For more on this discovery, see New Species of Extinct Vampire-Squid-Like Cephalopod With 10 Arms Named After Biden.
Reference: “Fossil coleoid cephalopod from the Mississippian Bear Gulch Lagerstätte clarifies early vampyropod development” by Christopher D. Whalen and Neil H. Landman, 8 March 2022, Nature Communications.DOI: 10.1038/ s41467-022-28333-5.
This study was supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology Program (# 2010822) and the Paleontological Society Student Research Grants Elis L. Yochelson Award.
An artistic reconstruction of the freshly described 328-million-year-old vampyropod. Credit: © K. Whalen
Description of exceptionally preserved fossil presses back age of Vampyropoda by almost 82 million years.
New research led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and Yale shows that the oldest ancestors of the group of animals that includes octopuses and vampire squids had not eight however 10 arms. The study, which describes a brand-new species of vampyropod based on a 328-million-year-old fossil that had actually not been formerly explained, presses back the age of the group by almost 82 million years. The information were published on March 8, 2022, in the journal Nature Communications.
” This is the only recognized and very first vampyropod to have 10 functional appendages,” said lead author Christopher Whalen, a postdoctoral scientist in the Museums Division of Paleontology and a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in Yales Department of Earth & & Planetary Sciences.
Vampyropods are soft-bodied cephalopods usually identified by 8 arms and an internalized chitinous shell or fin supports. We have actually long comprehended that octopuses accomplish the eight arm count through removal of the 2 filaments of vampire squid, and that these filaments are vestigial arms,” said Whalen.” However, all formerly reported fossil vampyropods protecting the appendages just have 8 arms, so this fossil is perhaps the first confirmation of the idea that all cephalopods ancestrally had 10 arms.”
2 of the cephalopods arms appear to have actually been lengthened relative to the other 8 arms, and its torpedo-shaped body is reminiscent of todays squids.