The Earliest Octopuses were Giant Apex Predators―Deciphering Ancient Marine Food Webs through Predation Scars and AI―

A research group consisting of Associate Professor Yasuhiro Iba and Research Fellow Shin Ikegami (Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University), Kanta Sugiura (PhD Student, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University), Professor Jörg Mutterlose (Ruhr University), Researcher Yusuke Takeda (Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute), Mehmet Oguz Derin and Dr. Takahiro Harada (Morgenrot Inc.), Lecturer Aya Kubota (Graduate School of Science, Osaka Metropolitan University), Professor Kazuki Tainaka (Brain Research Institute, Niigata University), and Professor Emeritus Harufumi Nishida (Chuo University) has developed an AI model capable of visualizing large-scale 3D data. By analyzing the fossilized jaws of octopuses from the Late Cretaceous period (approximately 100 to 72 million years ago), the group has successfully reconstructed the body size and ecology of these cephalopods in detail, adding new evidence to remodeling the marine food web during the dinosaur time.

For more details, please visit the Hokkaido University website:
https://www.global.hokudai.ac.jp/news/25804/