Episode 494: Four Water Animals

Episode 494: Four Water Animals

From Strange Animals Podcast by Katherine Shaw

July 20, 2026 · 7 min

About this episode

This episode discusses four scientific articles related to water animals, including a newly discovered ancient cephalopod fossil.

Further reading: New species of extinct vampire-squid-like cephalopod When teeth grow on the body Fossil shark turns into mystery pterosaur Scientists Had Never Seen This Elusive Whale Alive—Until Now Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. This month I wasn’t sure what to cover in this episode, so I decided to just click on four random bookmarks of scientific articles that I’ve had waiting for attention, and we’ll discuss them. We haven’t done a four articles episode in a long time! The first article is from March 2022, and it’s about the discovery of an ancient cephalopod. Cephalopods include octopuses and squid. Octopuses famously have eight arms, while squid have eight arms and two feeding tentacles. Despite its name, the deep-sea vampire squid is actually more closely related to octopuses than to squid, and a newly discovered fossil is an ancestor to both. The fossil is 328 million years old and was discovered in Montana, in the United States, in 1988 but was only studied recently. Fossils of soft-bodied animals are incredibly rare, and this one is remarkably well-preserved. All of the animal’s arms are preserved, including the suckers…

People in this episode

Host: Katherine Shaw

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Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Episode 494: Four Water Animals, New species of extinct vampire-squid-like cephalopod, When teeth grow on the body, Fossil shark turns into mystery pterosaur, Scientists Had Never Seen This Elusive Whale Alive—Until Now

Places: Montana

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