MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fossil of giant predator squid found in northern Mexico

Researcher Wolfgang Stinnesbeck

Mexican and German researchers have found the fossil of a giant squid that lived in northern Mexico about 100 million years ago, the daily La Jornada reported Friday.

The research was conducted by Mexico's Desert Museum and Heidelberg University as part of a study on pre-historic land and sea species that once lived in the current Mexican state of Coahuila, about 1,000 kilometres north of Mexico City.

“It is a giant squid similar to the sepias we have in the seas these days, but it is a new species that lived in the Cuatrocienagas area 100 million years ago, in the Cretaceous period, when the whole of the northeast, including this area, was covered in water,” said German researcher Wolfgang Stinnesbeck.

The animal had 10 tentacles and was part of a group of predator cephalopod molluscs that lived in the area. No details were made public as to the squid's size.

According to La Jornada, the finding was made in the first few weeks of 2010.