All articles tagged with #octopus evolution
A 300-million-year-old fossil long celebrated as the world’s oldest octopus (Pohlsepia mazonensis) has been reidentified as a nautiloid relative after synchrotron imaging revealed a radula with tooth-like structures that rule out an octopus. The discovery also preserves the oldest known nautiloid soft tissue and pushes octopus origins to the Jurassic, prompting a reevaluation of cephalopod evolution.
Synchrotron imaging of the Mazon Creek fossil Pohlsepia mazonensis revealed hidden teeth matching Paleocadmus pohli, proving it’s a nautiloid relative rather than an octopus. This pushes octopus origins to the Jurassic and marks the oldest nautiloid soft-tissue fossil, overturning a 26-year-old misidentification from Illinois.
New synchrotron imaging of the 300-million-year-old fossil Pohlsepia mazonensis shows it is a nautiloid relative, not an octopus. The fossil reveals a nautilus-like radula with 11 tooth-like elements per row and other features, leading researchers to reclassify the find and push octopus origins into the Mesozoic era (late Jurassic at latest). Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study also provides the oldest soft-tissue evidence of a nautiloid, reshaping our understanding of cephalopod evolution.
A 300-million-year-old fossil, Pohlsepia mazonensis from Mazon Creek, which was long interpreted as an oldest-known octopus, has been reclassified as a nautilus after high-resolution X-ray synchrotron imaging revealed a radula and anatomy inconsistent with octopuses, reshaping ideas about cephalopod evolution. The study, led by Dr. Thomas Clements and affiliated with the Field Museum, was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.