Rare fossil octopuses found: 95 million-year-old

msnbc ^ | March. 18, 2009

[JoeProBono]

It's hard enough to find fossils of hard things like dinosaur bones. Now scientists have found evidence of 95 million-year-old octopuses, among the rarest and unlikeliest of fossils, complete with ink and suckers. The body of an octopus is composed almost entirely of muscle and skin. When an octopus dies, it quickly decays and liquefies into a slimy blob. After just a few days there will be nothing left at all. And that assumes that the fresh carcass is not consumed almost immediately by scavengers. The result is that preservation of an octopus as a fossil is about as unlikely as finding a fossil sneeze, and none of the 200 to 300 species of octopus known today had ever been found in fossilized form, said Dirk Fuchs of the Freie University Berlin, lead author of the report.

[Caesar Soze]

That is not dead which can eternal lie. And these fools dug it up....

[DoorGunner]

>> ‘”These things are 95 million years old, yet one of the fossils is almost indistinguishable from living species,” Fuchs said.’

Think of it as “evolution inaction.”

[Nipplemancer]

do you really want to sit through two or three periods with an octopus in your pocket?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks JoeProBono.

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[SunkenCiv]

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[JoeProBono]

Proteroctopus ribeti ( Octopus ) Age: Middle Jurassic Location: Ardeche, France

[Sioux-san]

I saw my first octopus at the Seaquarium in Seattle aabout 25 years ago. Very sad — I am still haunted by it. There was a large tank in the middle of a walkway and this smallish octopus (about 2’) was all huddled up in the corner near the top of the aquarium. One of the employees walked by, and I commented that the octopus looked depressed. I was told that I was right - the octopus had just lost her baby and was quite sad and that octopus are very intellgent creatures. That’s when I decided I hated all these spectacles set up for the viewers “eduation” and gawking.

[ApplegateRanch]

Ooooo, LOOK! It’s a baby C’thulu!

[Fred Nerks]

described as a 'cambrian jellyfish' this image reminds me more of the Hiroshima Shadows than a fossil.

[SunkenCiv]

I’d like to see the looks on their faces when they discover the fossil of the peanut butter fish.

[socialismisinsidious]

The female octopus cares for her eggs but once they hatch they are on their own. She doesn't care for the babies. She can lay up to a million eggs at once so her being upset b/c she had "lost her baby" is doubtful. The reality is most of her "babies" will be lost b/c most will not live to adult hood. I even question that she had laid eggs while in captivity...not likely.

You no longer need to be haunted.

[Sioux-san]

Well, after all these years, now I can rest better. Is it possible that they just put a younger octopus in the same tank and she adopted it?

[ReagansShinyHair]

Well, they die pretty soon after laying their eggs, don’t they? Maybe it was dying instead of depressed. Or depressed about dying.