{"id":4333,"date":"2026-04-10T11:33:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T11:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/10\/scientists-discover-worlds-oldest-octopus-fossil-was-basically-catfishing-us\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T11:33:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T11:33:28","slug":"scientists-discover-worlds-oldest-octopus-fossil-was-basically-catfishing-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/10\/scientists-discover-worlds-oldest-octopus-fossil-was-basically-catfishing-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists discover world&#039;s oldest octopus fossil was basically catfishing us"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>2026-04-10 11:33:25<\/b><br \/>\n<BR>A sea creature once hailed as the world\u2019s oldest octopus has officially lost its title, after new research revealed the 300\u2011million\u2011year\u2011old fossil wasn\u2019t an octopus in the first place. <BR><br \/>\nScientists now say the specimen \u2014 long listed by Guinness World Records as the earliest known octopus \u2014 actually belonged to a shelled cephalopod more closely related to a nautilus.<BR><br \/>\nThe fossil, Pohlsepia mazonensis, has been debated for decades, but a new study led by University of Reading zoologist Dr Thomas Clements has finally settled the mystery. <BR><br \/>\nHe explained: \u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult fossil to interpret.<BR><br \/>\n\u201cIf you\u2019re a cephalopod researcher, it does superficially look a lot like a deep\u2011water octopus.\u201d<BR><br \/>\nThe hand\u2011sized fossil was discovered in Illinois\u2019 Mazon Creek region \u2014 a treasure trove of prehistoric life dating back long before dinosaurs roamed the planet. <BR><br \/>\nWhen researchers identified it as an octopus in 2000, it dramatically pushed back the evolutionary timeline of the eight\u2011armed creatures. <BR><br \/>\nThe next\u2011oldest confirmed octopus fossil is just 90 million years old, leaving a staggering gap that many scientists found difficult to reconcile.<BR><br \/>\nTo re\u2011examine the fossil, Clements\u2019 team used a synchrotron \u2014 a machine that fires electrons at extreme speeds to produce ultra\u2011bright beams of light.<BR><br \/>\nInside the rock, they discovered a radula: a ribbon\u2011like structure lined with rows of tiny teeth. <BR><br \/>\nCrucially, each row had 11 teeth. Modern octopuses have seven or nine, while ancient nautiloids had more \u2014 instantly overturning the original classification.<BR><br \/>\nClements added: \u201cThis has too many teeth, so it can\u2019t be an octopus.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nThe pattern matched another fossil from the same area, Paleocadmus pohli, a known nautiloid species. <BR><br \/>\nResearchers believe the creature\u2019s shell likely decomposed before fossilisation, making the misidentification more likely.<BR><br \/>\nFollowing the study\u2019s publication in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Guinness World Records confirmed it will retire the \u201coldest octopus fossil\u201d title. <BR><br \/>\nManaging editor Adam Millward called the findings \u201ca fascinating discovery\u201d and said the organisation will review the new evidence.<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Visit Bang Bizarre (main website) <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/xtbac.js\" data-video=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2026-04-10 11:33:25 A sea creature once hailed as the world\u2019s oldest octopus has officially lost its title, after new research revealed the 300\u2011million\u2011year\u2011old fossil wasn\u2019t an octopus in the first&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bizarre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4334,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333\/revisions\/4334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}