Ancient fossil reclassified: 300-million-year-old specimen is not an octopus, but a nautilus
A Field Museum fossil long thought to be the oldest octopus, Pohlsepia mazonensis from Mazon Creek (about 300 million years old), was re-examined with high-resolution X-ray imaging. The scans revealed a preserved radula indicating it is not an octopus but a nautilus, reshaping conclusions about octopus evolution and suggesting the cephalopod lineage is more recent than previously believed. The soft tissues likely decayed before fossilization, which had previously obscured the animal’s true identity.
