The hard shell, known as a cuttlebone, is important for buoyancy in cuttlefish, a member of the group Decabrachia which includes squid and their relatives.Ī few other members of the squid family also have remnants of the hard shell that can only be seen through a microscope, but most just have a gladius.
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"It's very interesting showing you the earliest stages of that evolutionary line."Ĭuttlefish, which are in the squid family, have a hard bone in their body to help them float. The group includes the enigmatic vampire squid - which is neither a blood-sucker nor a squid - and is related to octopuses.ĭr Whalen said the fossil provides insight into the point when vampyropods split away from their squid cousins. Vampyropods are one of three groups of soft-bodied cephalopods that contain vestiges of internal shells. The fossil, described today in the journal Nature Communications, pushes back by 82 million years the time when "vampyropods" evolved. Its fossilised body was excavated more than three decades ago and put away on a museum shelf until Dr Whalen and his colleague Neil Landman stumbled upon it.ĭubbed Syllipsimopodi bideni, it has joined the pool of species named in honour of US presidents.
![squid vs octopus squid vs octopus](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/458075/squid%20vs%20octopus%20what%20is%20the%20difference%20between%20squid%20and%20octopus.jpg)
The torpedo-shaped creature with fins on its back swam in the tropical waters that covered North America around 328 million years ago. "We have soft tissues that are preserved in such good detail that we can actually see individual suction cups on the arms," said Christopher Whalen of the American Museum of Natural History.