Did an Ancient Kraken Create Its Own Friends? What About a Modern Jellyfish?
Triassic Fossils and Modern Suckers The alignment and etching on the bones of the Shonisaurs (left) suggested another creature arranged them purposefully. A paleontologist theorizes it was meant to look like the coleoid suckers on an octopus (or Kraken) tentacle. Geological Society of America/Wikipedia A strange arrangement of ichthyosaurus bones suggests that a giant (and hypothetical) Triassic-era sea monster might have enjoyed playing with its food, artfully rearranging the bones of the sharks it ate, according to a Boston-based paleontologist. Perhaps it was making a self-portrait. Or maybe it was lonely and wanted to create an imaginary kraken pal. Found in Nevada's Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, the neatly arranged fossilized remains of nine Triassic ichthyosaurs, Shonisaurus popularis, have puzzled paleontologists for a generation. It wasn't clear whether these marine reptiles had died from a harmful algal bloom or were maybe stranded in shallow waters. After recent geological evidence suggested they died...