Fossil Find Suggests , Octopuses Were Around , Before the Dinosaurs.
Scientists in Montana have discovered a 330 million-year-old fossil of the oldest-known ancestor of octopuses.
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'The Guardian' reports that researchers believe the creature lived millions of years earlier than previously believed.
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The discovery would mean that octopuses were around before dinosaurs.
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The fossil measures 4.7 inches and has ten limbs, as opposed to modern octopuses, which now have eight limbs.
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Researchers believe the creature likely lived in a shallow, tropical ocean bay.
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It’s very rare to find soft tissue fossils, except in a few places.
This is a very exciting finding.
It pushes back the ancestry much farther than previously known, Mike Vecchione, a Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History zoologist, via 'The Guardian'.
It’s very rare to find soft tissue fossils, except in a few places.
This is a very exciting finding.
It pushes back the ancestry much farther than previously known, Mike Vecchione, a Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History zoologist, via 'The Guardian'.
According to 'The Guardian,' the fossil was discovered in Montana's Bear Gulch limestone formation.
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It was donated to the Royal Ontario Museum in 1988.
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There, it remained overlooked for decades until paleontologists took note of the specimen's unique ten limbs encased in limestone.
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The creature is classified as a vampyropod, which are the ancestors of both modern octopuses and vampire squid.
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Researchers note that the next oldest definitive vampyropod was dated to around 240 million years ago.
