Paleontologist Discovers "Giant Kraken Lair"

[v3n0mat3]

This article had me KRAKEN up.

 

[Woodsey]

[a
href=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/10/scientists-found-siberian-yeti_n_1003639.html#s388533]Yetis from the Russians[/a], and now Krakens from the Americans.

I guess that means we have to find Aslan.

All we need now are dragons from Europe. And perhaps Godzilla, but that'd just be a bonus at this point.

And if we could grab an Ocelot while we're at it, that'd be great. Not that they're mythical creatures, I've just never seen one.

 

[shadyh8er]

"We think that this cephalopod in the Triassic was doing the same thing," McMenamin said. "It was either drowning them or breaking their necks."

I'm just gonna pretend this guy got misquoted. I mean, "drowning a shark"? Come on now.

OT: This is some exciting stuff. Nessie better watch out.

 

[Normandyfoxtrot]

"We think that this cephalopod in the Triassic was doing the same thing," McMenamin said. "It was either drowning them or breaking their necks."

I'm just gonna pretend this guy got misquoted. I mean, "drowning a shark"? Come on now.

OT: This is some exciting stuff. Nessie better watch out.

Technically it's suffocation not drowning precisely, but the majority of sharks do require constant water flow over their gills. As for the story I'm seeing little I would expect to pass peer review.

 

[cynicalandbored]

"We have a very good case."

Actually you have absolutely NO case. This is a complete guess. He has no evidence at all to back up his theory.

This. It's a massive leap to say, "Oh, well we found all these remains in one place, so it MUST be a midden, so it MUST be a giant octopus of some sort." There's no evidence that these ichthyosaurs were killed by a cephalopod in the first place. Furthermore, it would seem, from reading other reports, that the ichthyosaur remains indicate different causes of death over a number of fossils. On top of that, there's good evidence from modern fish "graveyards" that ocean currents can cause a large number of dead fish and other sea creatures to amass in one area, without the help of super-intelligent Krakens, believe it or not. This thing should be a total non-story. It, and other stories like it, are the reason that mainstream science journalism is so entirely ridiculous.

 

[cynicalandbored]

Double post, ignore.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

As someone with an extreme phobia of Cephalopoda, please excuse me as I rock back and forth in the corner sobbing.

 

[Quaxar]

I was kind of interested in the article until I saw the video about an octopus eating a shark. After that, all interest in the topic flew out the window...

...and shifted to octopus-shark-fights.

FOR ALL ETERNITY!

I for one welcome Cthulhu as our new cephalopod overlord.

Cthulhu fhtagn!

 

[GonzoGamer]

Someone needs to go all Jurassic Park on that thing right now. I want there to be a Kraken in the world damn it.

What's the use, the Japanese will just eat them all.
That's probably what happened to the originals: they were too delicious.

 

[Enslave_All_Elves]

"We have a very good case."

Actually you have absolutely NO case. This is a complete guess. He has no evidence at all to back up his theory.

Not the best case unless there is more they didn't release, but to say they have no case is also false.

 

[Versuvius]

Someone needs to go all Jurassic Park on that thing right now. I want there to be a Kraken in the world damn it.

What's the use, the Japanese will just eat them all.
That's probably what happened to the originals: they were too delicious.

Giant deep sea cephalapods have huge amounts of ammonia in their flesh. They taste like a bottle of stale piss.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

I knew it!
CTHULU IS GOING TO RISE!
Don't worry, i've got the Cthulu-proof bunker fully-stocked!

Also, as a person who is intrested in this sort of stuff, this is awesome!

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

"We have a very good case."

Actually you have absolutely NO case. This is a complete guess. He has no evidence at all to back up his theory.

This,

While it's quite likely there were (we know there ARE, after all) huge cephalopods, there is no direct, no indirect evidence that makes this any more likely than it being anything else.

Even cryptozoological beasts normally have a fair amount of evidence.

Related: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/10/the-giant-prehistoric-squid-that-ate-common-sense.ars

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

Wow.
Is it odd that I'm more impressed by the fact that the billion year old massive octopus was self-aware and possibly vain, than the fact that there's a billion year old massive octopus?

 

[Hungry Donner]

This. It's a massive leap to say, "Oh, well we found all these remains in one place, so it MUST be a midden, so it MUST be a giant octopus of some sort." There's no evidence that these ichthyosaurs were killed by a cephalopod in the first place. Furthermore, it would seem, from reading other reports, that the ichthyosaur remains indicate different causes of death over a number of fossils. On top of that, there's good evidence from modern fish "graveyards" that ocean currents can cause a large number of dead fish and other sea creatures to amass in one area, without the help of super-intelligent Krakens, believe it or not. This thing should be a total non-story. It, and other stories like it, are the reason that mainstream science journalism is so entirely ridiculous.

He isn't suggesting a super-intelligent cephalopod, just one acting in a similar manner to octopi today. It isn't a great leap to suggest that an octopus from 200 million years ago would be very large, we know that there were other large cephalopods at that time. It also isn't a great leap to suggest that these older octopi had similar intelligence levels and behavior to modern octopi.

Does he have hard proof? Absolutely not, there are other scenarios that can fit the little evidence he has. Dr. McMenamin probably shouldn't have made this sound so open-and-shut, and describing large ichthyosaurs as "the Triassic?s counterpart to today?s predatory giant squid-eating sperm whales" is inappropriate if there isn't evidence to back this up (which there may be, I don't know). The self-portrait bit, while intriguing, is also laid on a bit heavy.

However I think it's an interesting theory, and actually quite reasonable.

Or it could just be a really, really big octopus?

That's what this guy is suggesting: "an ancient, very large sort of octopus, like the kraken of mythology." He isn't suggesting that these critters are still around, or that they were the basis of the mythology, just that he feels that a big octopus was responsible.

 

[Skeleon]

PZ Myers has reacted very, let's say, skeptically on his famous science blog about this. Here's the link for those of you who are interested:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/10/traces_of_a_triassic_kraken.php

 

[Nouw]

This is awesome, but sadly it doesn't have enough evidence to be backed up.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

It's too bad we won't likely find any any evidence that it existed. Well, no bodies I mean. How can we clone one without a body?! I guess we could science up a Kaiju based off of the DNA found on modern day octopi, squid, etc.