Paleontologists Reclassify Oldest Octopus Fossil as Nautiloid
Pohlsepia mazonensis, a fossil from Illinois previously identified as the oldest known octopus, has been reclassified as a nautiloid. Initially described in 2000, the fossil was dated to the late Carboniferous period, approximately 311 to 306 million years ago. Recent high-tech imaging tests conducted by Thomas Clements and his team at the University of Leicester revealed that Pohlsepia was not an octopus but rather a decomposed, squashed nautiloid. The fossil's misclassification was due to the unique preservation process at the Mazon Creek Lagerstätte, where high iron content in the sediment preserved soft tissues as flat, two-dimensional stains, leading to misinterpretation. 
