Oldest known ancestor of octopuses unearthed in Montana in form of approximately 330m-year-old fossil
Scientists have found the oldest known ancestor of octopuses – an approximately 330m-year-old fossil unearthed in Montana.
The 4.7-inch fossil has 10 limbs – modern octopuses have eight – each with two rows of suckers. It probably lived in a shallow, tropical ocean bay., except in a few places,” said Mike Vecchione, a Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History zoologist who was not involved in the study. “This is a very exciting finding. It pushes back the ancestry much farther than previously known.”
The 330m-year-old fossil of Syllipsimopodi from the Bear Gulch Limestone of Montana, which is held in the Invertebrate Paleontology collections of the Royal Ontario Museum.For decades, the fossil sat overlooked in a drawer while scientists studied fossil sharks and other finds from the site. But then palaeontologists noticed the 10 tiny limbs encased in limestone.