Research Press Release
Communications Biology
February 19, 2021
The evolutionary ancestors of vampire squids may have adapted to deep-sea environments that were low in oxygen as early as the Oligocene period (around 23¬¬–34 million years ago), according to a paper published in
Communications Biology. These findings help bridge a 120 million-year gap in the vampire squid fossil record.
The modern vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) inhabits extreme, low-oxygen habitats in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. However, it is unclear how or when these squids evolved the unique traits that allow them to thrive in these deep-sea environments, especially since ancestral Mesozoic squids were known to inhabit relatively shallow water in epicontinental shelves.