Tusoteuthis

Tusoteuthis (meaning "crushed squid") is an extinct genus of large enchoteuthine cephalopod that lived during the Cretaceous. Although often called a squid, it is now thought to be more closely related to modern octopuses. Examination of gladius remains has yielded an estimated mantle length close to or equal to that of the modern giant squid. Fossil remains have been found in parts of the one-time Western Interior Seaway of North America, including Late Cretaceous rocks in Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Manitoba Province. One species, T. longa, is traditionally recognized. In 2019, due to poor preservation of holotype specimen, genus Tusoteuthis is likely to be invalid, and it is considered that later described species are better to include in genus Enchoteuthis instead.[2]

Tusoteuthis
Temporal range:
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Cephalopoda
Order:
Octopoda
Suborder:
†Teudopseina
Superfamily:
†Muensterelloidea
Family:
†Muensterellidae
Subfamily:
†Enchoteuthinae
Larson, 2010[1]
Genus:
†Tusoteuthis
Logan, 1898
Type species
†Tusoteuthis longa
Logan, 1898
Synonyms

Etymology

American paleontologist William N. Logan did not directly explain the etymology of Tusoteuthis when he named it in 1898.[3] The generic name may be formed from Latin tusus "crushed" (passive participle of Latin tundo "beat, crush") + Greek teuthis "squid", alluding to the typically fragmented condition of the fossil gladius.[4] The gender of the type species name was later corrected to the Latin feminine longa.

Ecology

Tusoteuthis is assumed to have preyed on other cephalopods, fish, and possibly even small marine reptiles.[5] Tusoteuthis was also preyed on by other animals, especially the many, various predatory fish of the Western Interior Seaway. A fossil of the predatory aulopiform, Cimolichthys nepaholica, was found with the gladius of T. longa in its gullet. The back portion of the gladius was in the stomach region, while the mouth of C. nepaholica had remained opened, suggesting that the fish had died in the middle of swallowing the cephalopod, tail first. Researchers strongly suspect that as the fish was swallowing Tusoteuthis, the head and/or tentacles remained outside the mouth, thus blocking the gills of the fish, and suffocating it as it swallowed its prey.[6]

See also

References
  1. Larson, N.L. (2010). "Fossil coleoids from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian & Maastrichtian) of the Western Interior". Ferrantia. 59: 78–113.
  2. Fuchs, Dirk; Iba, Yasuhiro; Heyng, Alexander; Iijima, Masaya; Klug, Christian; Larson, Neal L.; Schweigert, Günter (2020). Brayard, Arnaud (ed.). "The Muensterelloidea: phylogeny and character evolution of Mesozoic stem octopods". Papers in Palaeontology. 6 (1): 31–92. doi:10.1002/spp2.1254. ISSN 2056-2802. S2CID 198256507.
  3. Logan, William N. (1898). "The invertebrates of the Benton, Niobrara and Fort Pierre Groups". University of Kansas, Geological Survey. 4: 431–518.
  4. Creisler, B. (16 May 2019). "An etymological question". Dinosaur Mailing List (Mailing list). Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  5. Everhart, Mike (2007). Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic. p. 92. ISBN 978-1426200854.
  6. Kauffman, E. G. (1990). "Cretaceous fish predation on a large squid". In Boucot, A. J. (ed.). Evolutionary Paleobiology and Coevolution. Amsterdam: Elsevier. pp. 195–196.
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