Vampire squids, which are closely related to octopuses and squids, lurk at the depths of the ocean, where there is little oxygen. There is a shroud that covers its eight arms, and they turn inside out if they are threatened in any way. Soft-bodied, docile organisms that consume carrion, trash as well as their own excrement. New species of vampire that lived 328 million years ago and had ten tentacles instead of eight were discovered by a team from the American Museum of Natural History and Yale University. The specifics will be revealed in an article to be published in 'Nature Communications' on Tuesday.

According to Christopher Whalen, a Yale researcher, this is the first and only known vampire with ten functional appendages. Fossils of these animals are scarce because they lack rigid structures. In contrast, a newly published study relies on an unusually well-preserved vampiropod fossil from the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) that was initially unearthed in Montana.

The new genus and species were recognized as vampires, making it the oldest known vampire and increasing the group's fossil record by around 82 million years, according to the researchers. They also detail its ten arms, all of which have intact suckers, in the new paper.

"The ten-arm line of squid and cuttlefish (Decabrachia) is distinct from the eight-arm line of octopus and vampire squid because of the number of arms" (Vampyropoda). Researchers have known for some time that octopuses had eight arms since they remove the two filaments of the vampire squid, which are considered vestigial limbs by scientists. There had previously only been eight previously recorded fossil vampiropods that survive appendages, therefore this specimen is likely the first validation of the hypothesis that all cephalopods had ten arms at one point in their evolutionary history, he says.

Vice-President Joe Biden
With its long arms and torpedo-shaped body, the cephalopod is very much like a modern, more modern version of our squid. Syllipsimopodi bideni was the fossil's scientific name. As the oldest known cephalopod with suckers, it gets its general name of "prehensile foot" for this reason: the arms are better equipped to grasp prey and other objects. Joseph R. Biden is currently the Vice President of the United States, and the species name honors his memory.

As Landman points out, "Syllipsimopodi may have occupied a role more comparable to the mid-level aquatic predator that is the current squid. A sucker-laden arm may have been employed to remove little ammonoids from their shells, or it could have moved closer to the coast to hunt brachiopods, bivalves, or other shelled marine species.