Researchers in archaeology have discovered the fossil of the oldest known ancestor of the octopus – a fossil dating back approximately 330 million years, unearthed in Montana, Northwestern United States.
This fossil leads researchers to conclude that this ancient creature existed on Earth millions of years earlier than previously published data regarding the appearance of octopuses, suggesting that octopuses appeared even before the dinosaurs.
This octopus species is believed to have lived in an environment similar to a shallow marine bay.
This octopus fossil measures 4.7 inches (12 cm) in length and features 10 limbs on its body—two more than modern octopuses, with those two limbs functioning as suction cup-like legs. It is thought that this octopus lived in a tropical shallow marine bay. The fossil specimen was discovered buried within the Bear Gulch limestone formation in Montana. It has been donated and displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada since 1988.
Mike Vecchione, a zoologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, stated that it is very rare to excavate fossils of soft-bodied animals, making this discovery particularly intriguing and significant, changing what humanity knows about the ancestors of modern octopuses.
For decades after its discovery, the octopus fossil was “forgotten” and received little attention, as scientists focused on studying shark fossils and other specimens excavated at Bear Gulch. However, paleontologists later recognized the significance of this fossil when they noticed the specimen had 10 small limbs encased within the limestone. Paleontologist Christopher Whalen noted that the fossil was exceptionally well-preserved, reinforcing the hypothesis that this ancient octopus may have had an ink sac and used it to expel a dark protective layer to evade predators.
Previously, a fossil of a creature known as Vampyropod, considered an ancestor of both modern octopuses and squids, dated back about 240 million years. With the new octopus fossil dating back approximately 330 million years, researchers named it Syllipsimopodi bideni, in honor of President Joe Biden.
