Fossil Reidentification Alters Understanding of Octopus Evolution
Recent research has led to a significant reidentification of a fossil previously thought to be the world's oldest octopus. The fossil, originally discovered in the Mazon Creek fossil beds in Illinois, was reexamined using synchrotron imaging, revealing it to be a nautilus relative rather than an octopus. This discovery, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that octopuses appeared much later in the Jurassic period, rather than 300 million years ago as previously believed. The fossil, now identified as Paleocadmus pohli, represents the oldest known nautiloid soft tissue preservation, pushing back the record by approximately 220 million years. 
