Fossil evidence for vampire squid inhabiting oxygen-depleted ocean zones since at least the Oligocene

Abstract

A new fossil of a vampire squid bridges a 120 million-year gap in their fossil record. Vampire squid today are adapted to low oxygen, deep sea environments and this new specimen provides evidence that the deep sea specialisation of vampire squid may have been triggered during the development of oxygen minimum zones in the oceans during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic.