最早的章鱼是白垩纪海洋中的巨型顶级捕食者
最早的章鱼是白垩纪海洋中的巨型顶级捕食者
作者： 小柯机器人 发布时间：2026/4/24 15:26:28
本期文章：《科学》：Volume 392 Issue 6796
日本北海道大学Yasuhiro Iba小组取得一项新突破。他们发现了最早的章鱼是白垩纪海洋中的巨型顶级捕食者。这一研究成果发表在2026年4月23日出版的国际学术期刊《科学》上。
在这里，研究小组描述了来自这个“脊椎动物时代”的无脊椎顶级捕食者，最早的有鳍章鱼（Cirrata）来自晚白垩纪沉积物（约1亿至7200万年前），根据巨大的，保存异常完好的颌骨化石和它们的磨损来确定。这种广泛的磨损表明坚硬骨骼的动态磨损。不对称的磨损模式进一步表明了偏侧行为，表明智力较高。据计算，这些章鱼的总长度为7到19米，可能是他们所描述的最大的无脊椎动物，与当代的巨型海洋爬行动物相媲美。他们的发现表明，强有力的下颚和表层骨骼的缺失，逐渐将头足类动物和海洋脊椎动物转变为巨大而聪明的捕食者。
据悉，顶级捕食者推动了生态系统结构的变化。在过去的3.7亿年里，大型脊椎动物占据了海洋食物链的顶端，而无脊椎动物则是较小的猎物。
附：英文原文
Title: Earliest octopuses were giant top predators in Cretaceous oceans
Author: Shin Ikegami, Jrg Mutterlose, Kanta Sugiura, Yusuke Takeda, Mehmet Oguz Derin, Aya Kubota, Kazuki Tainaka, Takahiro Harada, Harufumi Nishida, Yasuhiro Iba
Issue&Volume: 2026-04-23
Abstract: Top predators drive changes in ecosystem structure. For the last ~370 million years, large-sized vertebrates have dominated the apex of the marine food chain, while invertebrates have served as smaller prey. Here we describe invertebrate top predators from this “age of vertebrates,” the earliest finned octopuses (Cirrata) from Late Cretaceous sediments (~100 to 72 million years ago), as identified based on huge, exceptionally well-preserved fossil jaws and their wear. This extensive wear suggests dynamic crushing of hard skeletons. Asymmetric wear patterns further indicate lateralized behavior, suggesting advanced intelligence. With a calculated total length of ~7 to 19 meters, these octopuses may represent the largest invertebrates thus described, rivaling contemporaneous giant marine reptiles. Our findings show that powerful jaws, and the loss of superficial skeletons, convergently transformed cephalopods and marine vertebrates into huge, intelligent predators.
DOI: aea6285
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aea6285