This quite recently discovered wingsquid is a primitive offshoot of the branch leading to the baleen squids. Besides the paddle-like fins, it also has primitive versions of such defining characters as the "jaw tentacles" and modified tentacles, which it uses for locating and capturing it's prey from the ocean floor. It is currently debated whether Ktulu spawn's hunting tentacles' thin finger-like feelers are highly modified version of an early verson of the baleen tentacles, or perhaps the original, unmodified structure from which baleen tentacles evolved.

    The ktulu spawn feeds on clams, crabs, bottom fish and various burrowing invertebrates. It can use its fins to swim both forwards and backwards, though not nearly as fast and gracefully as the more advanced baleen squids. The larvae have jet propulsion, but it is completely lost in adults. The ktulu spawn is considered to be a living fossil, both because of its primitive characters and because it has an internal shell very similiar to ones found in late Eocene sediments.
 

(Text by Matti Aumala)