Hundreds of millions of years ago, life tended to grow huge, like the giant griffinflies . Octopuses weren’t exempt from this rule, as demonstrated by a new study that found strong evidence for a colossal, “kraken-like” octopus from around a hundred million years ago. In a Science paper published today, scientists led by Shin Ikegami of Hokkaido University in Japan report identifying two species, Nanaimoteuthis jeletzkyi and N. haggarti , which were likely predatory, giant, finned octopuses ranging from 23 to 62 feet (7 to 19 meters). The 15 large fossil jaws displayed signs of wear that most likely came from crushing hard skeletons, refuting the general consensus that ancient marine ecosystems were dominated by vertebrate apex predators, such as mosasaurs . A diagram demonstrating the size differences between top marine predators and the giant, primordial octopus N. haggarti . © Ikegami et al., 2026 ‘Aliens’ on Earth A graphic representation of the giant finned octopus.…