A Stunning Illustration of a 95 Million Year Old Octopus Drawn With Its Own Preserved Ink

Octopus
photo by Esther van Hulsen

Norwegian wildlife artist Esther van Hulsen, in partnership with Jørn Hurum of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, created a stunning illustration of a 95-million year old octopus using a well-preserved fossil as her guide and its own astonishingly viable ink as her medium.

Drawing a 95 million year old octopus, with it´s own ink. This fossil of an octopus called Kauppia was preserved in an extremely good state, with its inc sack in tact. Jørn Hurum and his team from the Natural History Museum in Oslo carefully extracted some of that fossilized ink and made it into a fine powder. To my surprize the ink was water soluble and kept its beautiful sepia color, even after 90 million years.

Octopus in Own Ink - Stian Steinsli
photo by Stian Steinsli

Artist
photo by PalVenn

Fossil -Hans Arne Nakrem Ink
photo by Hans Arne Nakrem/Esther van Hulsen

via NRK, MetaFilter, Colossal

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.