About 18.3 billion years ago, a deep-sea squid was attracted to the present and became a frozen relic of the past.
The hungry eight-armed animal had just touched two delicious fish with its tentacles when it suddenly suffocated to death. The carnivore was distracted by its prey and most likely sank into oxygen-deficient waters near the bottom of the sea, dying on an empty stomach.
Today's scientists are learning from this fatal mistake.
In 2022, three paleontologists in Germany discovered fossils of the ghost squid in the Jurassic limestone of Bascharag, Luxembourg.
The 38-centimeter (15-inch) fossil is not only visible from the last meal, but also contains traces of soft tissue structures, including eyeballs and muscle tissue.
The team said it was a brand new extinct squid that they called simoniteuthis michaelii.
Despite having a colloquial name, the ghost squid is not really a squid. They are small cephalopods and are closely related to octopods. While they do resemble a bit like an octopus, their eight arms are joined together by a leather net to form a unique little "fishing net".
Here, scientists have found the remains of two fish in a recently discovered ghost squid fossil, which is located between two gray eyeballs, very close to the mouth.
Squid fossils. 
s.Michaely fossils (A), chart (B), and ultraviolet fluorescence indicate muscle (I) (Fuchs et al., Swiss Journal of Paleontology, 2024).
Today, there is only one species of living ghost squid (vamproteutis infernalis) left in the deep sea, which looks a bit like an ** octopus, with a deep red **, red eyes and web-like arms.
However, a long time ago, in the Jurassic, this single species had more companions. Its relatives live in the shallow and deep waters of oceans around the world.
The newly discovered extinct squid is somewhat unique in its order. Compared to other "ghost" fossils found in the Jurassic, including those unearthed from the same shale deposit near Luxembourg, this fossil has only eight arms and consists of four pairs.
Other extinct ghost fossils usually have five pairs of arms, or at least four pairs of arms with a primary "fifth pair" on them.
Without more data, paleontologists can't determine why or when the fifth pair was lost in the order Onido, but the newest species may be an important part of the timeline and by far the most similar to its living relatives.
Even in the best of circumstances, fossils of this caliber rarely form or survive for a long time. It's such a blessing to find someone who is in such good shape and about to eat.
Our luck today may be due to the misfortune of this creature millions of years ago. Some of the best fossils ever found are in about 1It was formed 8.3 billion years ago when oxygen was relatively scarce in the oceans. Hypoxic conditions not only prevent decomposition, but also prevent carcasses from being eaten by other animals.
In this case, when the squid accidentally sank into oxygen-deficient water, it was buried at the bottom of the sea, protected from various elements for tens of millions of years.
It's not the only ghost squid that has suffered this fate. During the warm Jurassic, living in the ocean seemed to require organisms to be vigilant, making sure to stick to oxygen-rich waters when mating or foraging.
In 2021, fossils of two other ancient squid were found in the United States, which suffocated in a distracting fight. As global temperatures rise, the oceans are once again creating more oxygen-deficient ocean areas.
The fossil of Michaela was the first to be found to have prey in its mouth, revealing the dietary habits of this purpose. This is an exceptional finding, as most evidence of ghost predation is based on circumstantial evidence such as stomach contents or fossilized feces.
"Although there is fossil evidence that Jurassic ghosts inhabited deeper waters, at least their earliest representatives were more likely to roam and hunt in shallower waters," the German paleontologist wrote. ”。
s.Michaeli] confirms here that the early Jurassic vampropomorpha antecedents were either confined to the continental shelf or included the continental shelf in extent. ”
The study was published in the Swiss Journal of Paleontology.