Czech scientists from Karlov University in Prague studied the fossilized remains of squid-vampires of the Vampyroteuthis Infernalis species for 30 million years, and found the key to unraveling two secrets at once. Initially, this species originated 200 million years ago, but after 50 million years, its traces are lost to subsequently arise only after 120 million years. Where all this time was hidden by Kalmara data? Answer: Almost on the very seabed.
The name “Kalmarov-vampirs” itself indicates not a lifestyle, but its difficulties. Firstly, these creatures live many times longer than their closest relatives, they are real long-livers. Secondly, they live at depths of 1 to 3 km, where there is practically no oxygen and, as it was previously believed, there is no food. But the squid survive and flourish, as if fabulous monsters – hence the name.
Of particular difficulty in studying the data of squid was the absence of samples-due to the fact that they live in deep water. But this is exactly what saved them, saved from extinction after the fall of a meteorite that destroyed dinosaurs. Calmary-vampires are fed by organic “underwater snow”, the remains of dead creatures falling to the depth, where they are captured by the tentacles of the cephalopods. The thick layer of water reliably protects animals from cataclysms upstairs, and the more living creatures die there, the more food in squid.
The petrified remains of Kalmara-vampire
Source — Live Science