Overview
- A peer-reviewed study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B reclassifies Pohlsepia mazonensis as a nautiloid rather than an octopus.
- Synchrotron X-ray mapping at the SOLEIL facility revealed a radula with 11 teeth per row, a tooth pattern that excludes octopuses and matches nautiloids.
- The team also used scanning electron microscopy, micro-CT, and multispectral imaging to test each past claim of octopus traits and found no supporting structures.
- Guinness World Records said it will retire the fossil’s “oldest octopus” title following the study.
- The change removes a 300-million-year outlier from octopus evolution and brings the fossil record in line with much younger confirmed octopus fossils around 90 million years.