{"id":622365,"date":"2026-09-12T11:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622365\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T11:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:10:16","slug":"jurassic-squid-like-animal-unearthed-in-wyoming-is-fattest-ever-discovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622365\/","title":{"rendered":"Jurassic squid-like animal unearthed in Wyoming is \u201cfattest\u201d ever discovered"},"content":{"rendered":"

An international team of researchers has described a new \u201cpeculiar\u201d species<\/a> of a squid<\/a>-like animal, following the discovery of two exceptionally rare fossils<\/a> in Wyoming, USA. The research is\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0in the journal\u00a0Papers in Palaeontology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Belemnites, ancient cousins of modern squids and octopuses, are among the most common fossils found worldwide. Millions have been discovered in Wyoming\u2019s Sundance Formation, an ancient inland sea that once covered western USA. But the latest discovery stands out, with scientists describing it as the \u201cfattest belemnite ever discovered.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most belemnites unearthed in Wyoming measure around 5\u201310cm long and 1\u20132cm wide. By contrast, the newly named species,\u00a0Wyoteuthis linsterorum,\u00a0has an unusually broad, barrel-shaped rostrum around 10cm long and up to 6cm wide \u2013 making it the thickest belemnite ever recorded.<\/p>\n

Researchers estimate the living animal could have reached around 60cm in total length, including its arms.<\/p>\n

\"\"Illustration of Wyoteuthis linsterorum by Jason Poole. Courtesy of Jessica Lippincott
\nYears in the making<\/p>\n

In the late 1990s, an unusually large belemnite specimen was unearthed by Dr Burkhard Pohl, founder of the Wyoming Dinosaur Center<\/a>. The fossil sat unstudied in the museum\u2019s collection for many years, until a second specimen was discovered by fossil collector Cliff Linster near Ten Sleep, Wyoming, and donated to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Together, these two fossils finally told the whole story, providing enough evidence to identify and formally describe the new species.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The research was initiated by Wyoming palaeontologist and co-author of the study, Bill Wahl, who said this belemnite \u201cstuck out like a sore thumb.\u201d To investigate the remarkable specimens, he brought together an international team of scientists, including belemnite expert Alexey Ippolitov from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Using computer tomography (CT) scanning, the team was able to examine the fossils without damaging them, revealing internal features and determining the new species\u2019 place in the evolutionary history of belemnites.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The newly described Wyoteuthis linsterorum alongside a common\u00a0Pachyteuthis for size comparison. Courtesy of Jessica Lippincott<\/p>\n

This newly described \u201cchunky\u201d belemnite belongs to the family Megateuthididae, which is a group typically considered to have died out globally during the Bathonian period, which lasted from approximately 168\u2013165 million years ago. Species belonging to this family and dating back to the Late Jurassic period have not been previously recorded in North America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ippolitov said he was \u201cdeeply surprised\u201d to discover a fossil from such a well-studied group that was so radically different from anything found before. After more than 200 years of palaeontological research on belemnites, discoveries like this are exceptionally rare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA possible explanation is that their relatively large size gave them an advantage when hunting co-occurring smaller belemnites of the genus\u00a0Pachyteuthis,\u201d said Ippolitov.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cModern squid, after all, are hardly picky when it comes to prey: they readily hunt not only other species of cephalopods, but sometimes even their own kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naming the new squid-like animal<\/p>\n

The name\u00a0Wyoteuthis\u00a0aptly translates to ‘a squid from Wyoming’, while the species name,\u00a0linsterorum, honours Cliff Linster and his family. Cliff Linster passed away in June 2026 \u2013 he knew researchers were studying his remarkable discovery and was excited to see it formally described.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Co-author of the study and British palaeontologist Dr Dean Lomax, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester and an 1851 Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, UK, first met Cliff and his wife Sandy when he was a teenager.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI met Cliff and Sandy in 2009, when I spent a week digging up a dinosaur bonebed on their property in northern Montana. I have fond memories of that dig, listening to Cliff share his passion for fossils, including this belemnite,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honoured to help name this fossil after Cliff. It\u2019s bittersweet that he didn\u2019t get to see it published, but it\u2019s wonderful that we can immortalise him and his family name in the history of palaeontology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe find is incredibly rare, which might be due to some ecological adaptations to the environment at the time. Perhaps its rarity is a result of narrow specialisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full findings\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Top image: Field photo showing the locality of\u00a0Wyoteuthis linsterorum. Courtesy of Alexey Ippolitov<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An international team of researchers has described a new \u201cpeculiar\u201d species of a squid-like animal, following the discovery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":["post-622365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622365","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=622365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}