This Tiny Prehistoric Sea Creature Invented Jet Propulsion 500 Million Years Ago

[00:00:00]Scientists cracked open a fossil [music] and found a jet engine inside. Meet the ammonite, an ancient ocean predator with a coiled shell. They ruled the seas for over 300 million years, completely unchallenged. But for centuries, scientists assumed they just drifted along slowly. Then a single fossil from England rewrote the entire story forever. The fossil was 165 million years old with soft tissue still preserved inside.

[00:00:28]>> [music] >> Scientists blasted it with neutron beams and x-rays to see inside. For the very first time, they mapped its internal muscles in full 3D. And those muscles connected directly to a backward-facing [music] water tube. Fire water backward, shoot yourself forward. The perfect biological rocket. Scientists calculated it could hit nearly 30 miles per hour in the open ocean. Not a passive drifter, a high-speed ambush hunter targeting fish and crustaceans. Nature solved [music] jet propulsion 500 million years before human engineers did. Ammonites vanished 66 million years ago when the asteroid hit Earth. But their engine still flies >> [music] >> inside every squid, octopus, and jet plane today. Hit like, subscribe, and follow for more videos.