Scientists are arguing over the identity of a fossilized 10-armed creature
The animal may be the oldest octopus ancestor — or not
By Anna Gibbs
An ancient cephalopod fossil may be about to rewrite the history of octopuses and vampire squid, but it depends on who you ask. At the very least, it’s offering up a lesson in how hard it is to classify some fossils.
Because their soft bodies decay easily, it’s rare to find well-preserved fossils of cephalopods, a group that includes octopus, squid and cuttlefish. The relatively slim pickings of fossils have made establishing the animals’ family tree a headache for paleontologists.
Enter Syllipsimopodi bideni, an approximately 330-million-year-old fossil with exquisitely preserved suckers and 10 arms. The specimen was donated to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in 1988 after its discovery in Montana’s Bear Gulch Limestone, a treasure trove for soft-bodied fossils. A closer look suggests that the fossil is a type of cephalopod called a vampyropod, researchers from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City report March 8 in Nature Communications.