Meet Cliff Linster, the Wyoming fossil collector whose bizarre Jurassic “squid” sat for 30 years before being recognised as a new species to science

For nearly 30 years, an unusually chunky Jurassic fossil lay waiting to reveal what it was. Fossil collector Cliff Linster discovered one of only two known specimens in Wyoming, and his find was donated to the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre in 2019. Scientists have now identified it as Wyoteuthis linsterorum, a previously unknown species of belemnite dating to around 160 million years. Unlike the familiar bullet-shaped fossils commonly found in Wyoming, this ancient squid relative had a remarkably broad, barrel-shaped rostrum, earning it the description of the “chunkiest” belemnite ever found.