150-Million-Year-Old Fish Fossil Found with Squid Lodged in Throat

A newly described fossil from the Jurassic period captures a fish mid-choke on a belemnite rostrum — the mineralized internal shell of an extinct cephalopod related to modern squid and cuttlefish. The specimen offers a rare snapshot of a predation attempt gone fatally wrong, preserved across 150 million years.

The find was published in a peer-reviewed paper and highlights how belemnite rostrums, among the most common Jurassic fossils, occasionally turn up in unexpected contexts — in this case, as the instrument of a predator’s death.