Cephalopodcast

Daniel Bensen is a scientific illustrator who, along with his cohorts, dares to ask the question:

What if the Chicxulub bolide had missed the Earth?

Some of the weirdest animals on Spec are the balaenateuths or baleen-squids, a diverse group of flippered cephalopods with highly modified tentacles. They range in size from small, mesopelagic gems to immense filter-feeding giants. Absolutely nothing like them exists or has ever existed on Home-Earth.

As with squid and cuttlefish, balaenateuths possess ten tentacles, two of which are greatly elongated and whiplike. The whips terminate in a cluster of finger-like appendages (giving rise to the term “digibrachia” or finger-arms) that are partially retracted into chambers beneath the mantle when not in use. Six arms are shorter, more conventional-looking tentacles that may be equipped with rows of suckers or hooks. The last two arms, one on the top and one on the bottom, are greatly broadened and often internally reinforced with calcite or cartilage. Only capable of vertical motion, they superficially resemble a set of vertebrate jaws and are sometimes referred to as “gnathobrachia” or jaw-arms.

It seems to follow in the footsteps of Dougal Dixon, whose books New Dinosaur and After Man I cherished as a child and still thumb through to this day. A more recent approach was undertaken by Discovery Communications.

Much, much more can be found at The Speculative Dinosaur Project. Be sure to also read up on:

• Gigamouth shark
• Yellowfin arsegill fish

Strangely, all updates from Daniel’s site seem to end circa 2005. Anyone know what’s up with that?

Tags: cephalopods, fossils, Paleontology

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Animals, Inspiration, Science News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.