Scientists have found new evidence that the tentacled fossil is not a squid at all. Instead, it is a relative of the nautilus, a shelled mollusk with tentacles.
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.
