Scientists have found new evidence that the tentacled fossil is not a squid at all. Instead, it is a relative of the nautilus, a squid-like mollusk with both tentacles and a shell.
The fossil Pohlsepia mazonensis has long been the subject of scientific debate.
"It's a very difficult fossil to interpret. If you look at it, it looks more like a white pine tree," says Thomas Clements, a zoologist at the University of Reading in the UK and the lead researcher behind the new findings.
In 2000, paleontologists identified the creature as a squid, suggesting that squid evolution occurred much earlier than previously thought. The second oldest known squid fossil is "only" about 90 million years old.
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