The scientists named the approximately 330 million-year-old fossil Syllipsimopodi bideni, after President Biden.
Scientists have found the oldest known ancestor of octopuses — an approximately 330 million-year-old fossil unearthed in Montana.
The researchers concluded the ancient creature lived millions of years earlier than previously believed, meaning that octopuses originated before the era of dinosaurs. The 4.7-inch fossil has 10 limbs — modern octopuses have eight — each with two rows of suckers. It probably lived in a shallow, tropical ocean bay., a Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History zoologist who was not involved in the study. “This is a very exciting finding. It pushes back the ancestry much farther than previously known.”