Squirts of dark inky fluid sometimes helped the squid blind and confuse predators like the mosasaur Tylosaurus and a barracuda-like fish called Cimolichthys long enough for escape.

Predators likely included some of the fiercest monsters of the seas, such as the sharp-toothed shark Cretoxyrhina and the giant mosasaur Tylosaurus. Like all plesiosaurs, Styxosaurus's limbs were ...