Old squid ink

August 24, 2009 12:56 PM

Scientists draw squid using its 150 million-year-old fossilised ink.

Paleontologists discovered the remains of the creature, called a Belemnotheutis antiquus, during a dig at a Victorian excavation in Trowbridge, Wilts.

They cracked open what appeared to be an ordinary looking rock only to find the one-inch-long black ink sac inside. ... Remarkably, the ink they created was good enough to allow them to draw the squid-like animal and write its Latin name.

posted by Astro Zombie (33 comments total)

Well, it's not going to get more meta than that. Close it up, people!
posted by davejay at 12:58 PM on August 24

Take that you triassic horror, you!
posted by Mister_A at 12:59 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]

And yeah, cool story.
posted by Mister_A at 12:59 PM on August 24

Really cool stuff. Also, I seem to recall someone doing something similar with a squid found in the Solnhofen limestone, except they extracted the ink and made a print of the fossil itself. I can't give any more details, as it was told to me by my paleo professor about 6 years ago.
posted by brundlefly at 1:07 PM on August 24

That. Is. Awesome.
posted by headspace at 1:11 PM on August 24

Shouldn't they be doing, I dunno, science stuff with that ink sac rather than just doodling?
posted by Pollomacho at 1:12 PM on August 24 [6 favorites]

"It's very valuable material so we won't be using any more of it now we've done the first test."
posted by brundlefly at 1:15 PM on August 24

This is awesome.

Unless it turns out we're all living in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode and this "squid" was a demon entombed in rock for eternity with an enchantment that could only be broken by describing it on paper with its own ink.

Then science just screwed us all over.
posted by Science! at 1:16 PM on August 24 [8 favorites]

Trapped in a rock for 150 million years? So much for that vaunted squid intelligence.
posted by tommasz at 1:18 PM on August 24 [2 favorites]

They can be dissected as if they are living animals, you can see the muscle fibres and cells.

Wow.

[more inside] indeed.
posted by lekvar at 1:19 PM on August 24

Shouldn't they be doing, I dunno, science stuff with that ink sac rather than just doodling?

From the article:

"We felt that drawing the animal with it would be the ultimate self-portrait," said Dr Wilby.

"It's very valuable material so we won't be using any more of it now we've done the first test."

Their drawing (well done, and much better than a crude doodle) was a one-off. I wonder who'll be keeping the picture. More fun facts:

"The structure is similar to ink from a modern squid so we can write with it. I suppose we could theoretically use it for food colouring, too, but I don't think I will try tasting it."
...
Dr Wilby added: "About 155 million years ago, literally millions of these animals were dying out or being killed in this precise area and we don't know why that is."

Another good reason to not eat the ink: possibly deadly.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:20 PM on August 24

Unless it turns out we're all living in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode and this "squid" was a demon entombed in rock for eternity with an enchantment that could only be broken by describing it on paper with its own ink.

Sounds more Lovecraft than Buffy!
posted by brundlefly at 1:21 PM on August 24

This is really going to fuck up the intelligent cockroach archaeologists of 9743 A.D. when they try carbon dating this drawing.
posted by benzenedream at 1:22 PM on August 24 [23 favorites]

Shouldn't they be doing, I dunno, science stuff with that ink sac rather than just doodling?

Doing something as awesome as this is the kind of thing that can get intelligent young minds interested in science. Ergo, this is exactly the sort of thing that is of long-term benefit to science.

Yay science!
posted by graymouser at 1:26 PM on August 24 [3 favorites]

Awesome!
posted by kalessin at 1:29 PM on August 24

Hey, learning the ink is similar enough/preserved enough to draw with it is sciencey!
posted by sandraregina at 1:31 PM on August 24

I really want that picture! I would put it in a huge frame, possibly gilt.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:32 PM on August 24

Could we train a living squid to make art? I hear squid are pretty smart. Seriusly, just show it some Jackson Pollock paintings for inspiration, and see how it goes. Once it's mastered the basics, maybe encourage it to do a self-portrait. I don't think we need to worry about teaching it how to use perspective and shadow, after all this would count as outsider art and be more honest if we just let it work out its own style. Maybe enter it in the Turner Prize, maybe it would win. I know the prize gets a lot of flack, but it sure beats being calamari dinner. And besides, who wants to wait 150 million years to be famous, when you can do gimmicky art now?
posted by Sova at 1:35 PM on August 24

Scientists discover and disinter 150 million year-old squid? I've said it before and I'll say it again: Ia!Ia! Cthulhu F'thagn!
posted by The Bellman at 1:36 PM on August 24

I PREDICT! 150 million years from now, someone will unearth MetaFilter and link to it on their blog.
posted by not_on_display at 1:39 PM on August 24

I predict 150 million years from now someone will unearth MetaFilter and ask why the background color keeps changing.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:11 PM on August 24

Oh my goodness, this is delightful.

Yay squid!
posted by Neofelis at 2:19 PM on August 24

I'll bet bored scientists are doing this sort of crafty stuff all the time and we just don't hear about it.

"Hey, look at this neat little house I made out of a bunch of old bones!"
posted by orme at 3:17 PM on August 24 [4 favorites]

Well, it's not going to get more meta than that. Close it up, people!

How about that cephalopod consumed battered and fried at mefi meetup 10.1 last weekend?? (..says the vegan-cum-flexitarian on recognized holidays only....)

Some crazy meta.
posted by JaiMahodara at 3:27 PM on August 24

Wow, this is really neat! I'd Just like to point out that this is in fact about a belemnite and not a squid. Although related, belmenites have a bullet shaped internal structure made of calcite called a guard. Other cephalopods make their shells out of aragonite which doesn't preserve as well so belmenites have quite the exceptional fossil record even when they don't preserve crazy delicate parts like their ink sac. Belemnites went extinct and the end of the Cretaceous during the same extinction in which the dinosaurs and another awesome group of extinct cephalopods, the ammonites, died.
posted by DanielDManiel at 4:05 PM on August 24 [4 favorites]

Well, you just ruined it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:41 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]

Wow, this is really neat! I'd Just like to point out that this is in fact about a belemnite and not a squid. Although related, belmenites have a bullet shaped internal structure made of calcite called a guard. Other cephalopods make their shells out of aragonite which doesn't preserve as well so belmenites have quite the exceptional fossil record even when they don't preserve crazy delicate parts like their ink sac. Belemnites went extinct and the end of the Cretaceous during the same extinction in which the dinosaurs and another awesome group of extinct cephalopods, the ammonites, died.

Nerd alert!
posted by jimmythefish at 7:40 PM on August 24

JaiMahodara: How about that cephalopod consumed battered and fried at mefi meetup 10.1 last weekend??

It was damn tasty. I'm not sorry.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:03 PM on August 24

Excellent.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:03 PM on August 24

So how's this "we can dissect it, like, to individual cells and all that" claim/myth work? Have some huge strides been made? 'cause in my mind, fossil = rock. Not a whole lot of actual cells in rock. Rather more rocky than muscle-y.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:04 PM on August 24

The cell structure can still be preserved in the rock, though. If a tentacle can be discerned in the fossil why not a cell? I'd guess it must depend on the particular conditions of fossilization.
posted by hattifattener at 1:01 AM on August 25

Cool, but it was equally cool when they did it nearly two centuries ago. Elizabeth Philpot, Buckland/Chantrey and De La Beche made belemnite sepia drawings in the 1820s-30s.

Pardon the self-link: Fossil squid ink story has whiskers.
posted by raygirvan at 9:42 AM on August 25 [2 favorites]

This was awesome. Not as awesome as that time when a group of paleontologists made a sky-writing dinosaur out of fossilized T-Rex farts, but still, quite awesome.
posted by ericbop at 12:25 PM on August 25