Overview
- Researchers reporting in Science used high‑resolution imaging and AI to build 3D models of fossil jaws concealed inside Cretaceous rocks from Japan and Vancouver Island.
- By applying jaw‑to‑body scaling from living finned octopuses, the team estimated total lengths approaching 20 meters, or about 62 feet, comparable to large marine reptiles.
- The jaws display heavy wear with chips, scratches, polished edges, and tip loss of up to 10%, which points to repeated crushing of hard prey and active predation.
- The authors caution that diet and prey remain uncertain because there are no stomach contents or clear bite marks on vertebrate bones, so the ecological role needs more testing.
- The finds extend the known record of finned octopuses and show how AI‑driven “digital fossil mining” can uncover delicate remains that standard methods often miss.