Through advanced digital fossil‑mining, researchers have discovered that squids were the ocean’s premier predators long before dinosaurs vanished, a study in the journal Science reports. By creating fully 3D maps of Late Cretaceous rock samples from Japan, the team uncovered over a thousand fossilized cephalopod beaks—263 of which belonged to squids, including about 40 species previously unknown to science.
“It was like opening a time capsule,” says Dr. Shin Ikegami of Hokkaido University.
His group’s technique scans every nook and cranny of fossil‑bearing stones, revealing fragile beaks that otherwise go unnoticed. Because squid bodies rarely fossilize, these hard, amber‑colored mouthparts serve as vital clues to an animal’s presence and diversity.
What surprised the researchers most was just how common squids were. In sheer numbers and size, squid beaks outnumbered those of ammonites—once thought the seas’ great swimmers—and even rivaled fish fossils.
“Their body sizes were as large as fish and even bigger than the ammonites we found alongside them,” Ikegami says. This counters the long‑held view that soft‑bodied squids only thrived after the mass extinction 66 million years ago.
Digging deeper into those beaks revealed that both main squid lineages familiar today—shore‑dwelling Myopsida and open‑ocean Oegopsida—were already present about 100 million years ago. That means squids had not only popped up but also diversified explosively during the age of dinosaurs, forging modern‑style marine food webs far earlier than scientists realized.
“This finding changes everything we thought we knew about ancient oceans,” says Associate Professor Yasuhiro Iba, who led the work. By showing that squids were pioneers of fast, intelligent swimming, the study suggests they helped shape ecosystems that still persist today.
Beyond rewriting squid evolution, the digital fossil‑mining approach opens new doors for fossil research. By turning rocks into 3D treasure troves, paleontologists can now peer into the hidden record of soft‑bodied creatures—a group whose early history has long been shrouded in mystery.
All life above and below water has been influenced by cephalopods for half a billion years. Thanks to these tiny, durable beaks, we’re finally reading the earliest chapters of how squids rose to reign in the seas.
The study has been published in Science.
