An exceptional fossil unearthed in Montana has given us the earliest known ancestor of vampire squids and octopuses.
also challenges the predominant arguments for vampyropod origins and offers a new model for the evolution of internally-shelled cephalopods."There had been hints that vampyropod lineages may have been older than the previous oldest known specimen, dated to around 240 million years ago.
is the earliest known diverging vampyropod from the group's common ancestor. These 10 arms, all with suckers, suggest that this common ancestor also had 10 arms. "However, all previously reported fossil vampyropods preserving the appendages only have eight arms, so this fossil is arguably the first confirmation of the idea that all cephalopods ancestrally possessed 10 arms."Syllipsimopodi