Overview
- The new species Wyoteuthis linsterorum was formally described in the journal Papers in Palaeontology on Thursday and is based on two rare rostrum fossils from Wyoming’s Sundance Formation.
- Computed tomography scans of the specimens revealed internal features that place the animal in the megateuthidid family, a lineage researchers had thought vanished much earlier.
- Wyoteuthis is notable for an unusually thick, barrel-shaped rostrum about 10 centimetres long and up to 6 centimetres wide, implying a living animal roughly 60 centimetres in total length.
- Authors suggest the chunky proportions may reflect ecological specialization, such as preying on abundant smaller belemnites in the Sundance Sea, but emphasize this is a testable hypothesis rather than a proven behavior.
- The fossils link decades of collecting—one found in the late 1990s and a second donated in 2019 by collector Cliff Linster—and both specimens are now on display at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center.