{"id":416849,"date":"2026-04-25T12:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/416849\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T12:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:33:17","slug":"giant-62ft-kraken-like-octopus-capable-of-pulling-down-ships-found-to-have-roamed-seas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/416849\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant 62ft ‘Kraken-like’ octopus capable of pulling down ships found to have roamed seas"},"content":{"rendered":"

No matter how long us humans have been roaming about on land, it remains that only just five percent of the world\u2019s ocean has been explored.<\/p>\n

And while that alone is enough to freak people out about the sea nowadays, what may have previously knocked about there could be even more terrifying.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s as new evidence has found that a \u2018kraken-like\u2019 octopus was once roaming the seas, according to scientists.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Kraken was a legend of a sea monster, originating in Scandinavian folklore and feared by sailors of the past thanks to its depiction of being capable of destroying entire ships.<\/p>\n

I mean, when you think about them, squid and octopus are really rather unusual creatures<\/a>. And so, you can understand how they could be thought of as these mad monsters.<\/p>\n

\"II mean, octopus are a bit weird aren’t they? (FREDERIC J. BROWN\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s also the slight chance this legend came about because people sighted whopper animals lurking below the surface.<\/p>\n

And a study published yesterday (23 April) in the American Association for the Advancement of Science<\/a> found that huge cephalopods roamed the waters during the Cretaceous period.<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s just quickly clear up the jargon for the rest of the unfamiliar \u2013 cephalopods are animals belonging to the group Cephalopoda, containing octopus, squid, cuttlefish, nautilus and kin. The word derives from Greek and means \u2018head foot\u2019, perfectly describing these creatures that have eyes only just above many of their limbs.<\/p>\n

And the Cretaceous is a geological period that began 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago \u2013 just after the Jurassic Period.<\/p>\n

So, this reported fossil evidence dates back a long, long time.<\/p>\n

The researchers wrote that the massive thing \u2018had among the largest body sizes of all organisms in the Cretaceous oceans\u2019.<\/p>\n

Described as being 62-feet-long, the \u2018top-tier predator\u2019 is thought to have had the capability of being an absolute alpha in the seas.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Kraken legend originated in Scandinavian folklore. (Three Lions\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The researchers examined patterns of wear on the fossilised jaws and identified two main species of finned octopuses.<\/p>\n

Their notes say that while the giant things lived \u2018far too early to have been the source\u2019 of the Kraken legend, the fossil octopods from the late Cretaceous \u2018truly would have fit the description of the monster\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWear patterns on their jaws suggest that these octopods preyed upon the large reptiles present at the time, including plesiosaurs and mosasaurs,\u201d wrote editor Sacha Vignieri. \u201cThe authors interpret asymmetry in these wear patterns as an indication of corresponding asymmetry in behaviour, suggesting complex brain development and, potentially, high intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well there you go, there were once massive octopuses with powerful jaws and clever brains knocking about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No matter how long us humans have been roaming about on land, it remains that only just five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[264,61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-416849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animals","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}