It kinda is. Cameroceras was downgraded quite a bit, from 30 feet to 12. The fact is we really can't know much about extinct cephalopods.Hungry Donner said:
To which I would say you have an underdeveloped sense of bullshit.Andy Chalk said:
Paleontologist Discovers "Giant Kraken Lair"
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
This can only mean...MEGA SHARK! VERSUS GIANT OCTOPUS! It was totally a documentary! Filmed by parallel universe time travelers!
What the article doesn't say is how they're co-naming the project "Holy Fuck Rainbows Real Krakens!"
Blasphemous Fools! While you worship your petty Old Ones, the Outer Gods, Azathoth, Nyarlethotep, and Yog Sothoth will be making quick work of these so called Great Old ones!Quaxar said:
May the war of the Outer and Elder Gods COMMENCE!!
I'm so glad I got that XDWoodsey said:
Well done for the LOLz
Secondly THIS is an Ocelot
<youtube=V1a8m51ZduQ>
...that's exactly what one variation of the kraken is. What exactly do you think a kraken is supposed to be?JasonKaotic said:
Anyways, the article seems to make a pretty big leap of faith. As much as I'd like to think that a giant cephalopod was responsible, it could be any number of other things. There's very little evidence to go on. This is just another theory that lacks sufficient evidence for me to consider it credible. It's an interesting theory though, I'll give it that. Pretty much anything involving a giant killer cephalopod is going to interest me. But without any solid evidence I can't consider it to be any more than that. I mean I get that cephalopods don't really have much in terms of remains that last over time, but you need something.
Also every time you made a bad irrelevant Cthulhu joke an adorable little cuttlefish gets killed.
EDIT: Seriously, this has freaking nothing to do with Lovecraft. Just becuase Cthulhu resembled a giant octopus thing doesn't mean these jokes are funny. Not that they would be funny in any other context either. I'm willing to be half the people that make these jokes have never read full a Lovecraft story.
Possibly. The original idea of the kraken could have come from rare sightings of colossal squid on the surface. I can't imagine a colossal squid every attacking a boat though, but like most things the sailor devouring cephalopod most likely came about as a result of exaggeration of the original story. There have plenty of giant cephalopods throughout history, but none as big as the one this article claims.Iron Lightning said:
He was talking about drowning the Ichthyosaurs, which needed the airs for living.shadyh8er said:
Good lucking finding the Tarrasque in China... They were a french dragon in origin...Torrasque said:
Many creatures during that period were much larger in size than the ones that live now, so it is logical that there is a chance of a larger creature that was the long grandfather of octopus. it may not have been genealogically same thing, but it could very well be a similar one (after all crocodiles have survived millions of years without genealogical changes)
It's exactly the self-portrait bit that I mean when I say super-intelligent. The entire thing assumes a level of consciousness that encompasses self-awareness. Very few animals can even recognise themselves in the mirror, one of the classic self-awareness tests. Get them to do a painting, or a sculpture in this case, of themselves and then tell me if you think it's likely a prehistoric octopus could have done it. Aside from that, the only animal that consciously and indisputably creates artwork in the modern world is the human, because our minds are theoretically (and seemingly in practice) the only ones complex enough for abstract thought. Modern octopi categorically do not create artworks. So by super-intelligent, I mean much more intelligent than most modern (including modern cephalopods) and all prehistoric animals, which is what would be indicated by abstract self-portrait sculpting. Sounds like pareidolia to me.Hungry Donner said:
It would seem that yes, ichthyosaurs as part of the general ecosystem were vaguely analogous to squid-eating sperm whales. There is good evidence for a number of large cephalopod species in this time period, though not on the scale that's being suggested by Dr. McMenamin. And aside from that, like I mentioned in my original post, analysis of the fossils suggests multiple causes of death across the board, which wouldn't be the case if they were all killed by the Kraken. Jumping to conclusions without any evidence to back it up is very bad science, and this theory would never stand up to peer review were the good doctor to try and get it published.
dam ninja'd being ninja'dDasDestroyer said:
well nothing can cheer me up now
well this cheered me up immenslyRT-Medic-with-shotgun said:
Where did they find those bones then? 'Cause if we want to be picky about our mythology up here in the north (and i know i for one do) then we won't accept the americans fucking up even more of it.
First you took our gods and turned them into flamboyant knights and now you wanna take our sea monsters too? I won't have it!
As for the story itself i guess we'll just have to wait and see how it develops, but i doubt we'll be hearing any more about this anytime soon
First you took our gods and turned them into flamboyant knights and now you wanna take our sea monsters too? I won't have it!
As for the story itself i guess we'll just have to wait and see how it develops, but i doubt we'll be hearing any more about this anytime soon
Well, I'm happy... not that suprised... but happy nonetheless...H.P.Lovecraft said:
Oh what great Cthulhu-vid so far @Scorched_Cascad
let me add another one:
I'm not exactly sure what your trying to say, but it sounds like your implying that larger size and high intelligence are directly related in cephalopod species. I've never heard of this being true. It certainly isn't true for squids and cuttlefish, and without substantial proof you can't claim that it's true for an ancient octopus either. This entire theory makes a lot of assumptions and has almost no evidence to back it up. Even if you had some kind of evidence that these octopuses existed you'd be hard pressed to prove how intelligent it was let alone that it made self-portraits.nikki191 said:
So, what the upshot of this press release is is that during the Mesozoic period, known for it's megafauna and megaflora, paleontologists now believe there was a version of a creature we know today, but much bigger. Wow science, thanks for pointing that out to me. 
Me too but that's what they say it is.Versuvius said:
Really I think it's just old boot marinated in cat-pee... but they do it the best.