Yasumitsu Kanie

Yoshihiko Okazaki, Yoshikazu Hasegawa, Yoshiko Tatematsu

Academic paper

Bulleton of Gunma Museum of Natural History

Number 2

11-23

The Cretaceous Vampyromorpha Provampyroteuthis giganteus swam at the surface or in shallow waters, differing from the modern species Vampyroteuthis infernalis. Among many kinds of coleoids, the weaker Vampyroteuthis were driven to inhabit the deeper parts of the sea, an adaptation enabling them to survive as living fossils.
Cephalopod jaw remains were discovered as the stomach contents of an elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the Upper Cretaceous deposits of Hokkaido, Japan. Many pieces were Embedded around the ribs together with gastroliths. The predator Elasmosaurid were interpreted as surface or shallow sea swimmers from their body morphology and they could not bite shelly ammonites and nautilid with their teeth. The living Vampyroteuthis is a weak swimmer in the water columns of 300 � 2500 m depths, whereas the assemblage of molluscan fossils associated with Provampyroteuthis remains suggests an off�estuary environment at a moderate depth.

Provampyroteuthis, Vampyroteuthis, Cephalopoda Plesiosaur, Cretaceous

English