A reconstruction of Nectocaris pteryx Copyright 2009 Marianne Collins A recent study sheds new light on a previously unclassifiable 500 million-year-old squid-like carnivore known as Nectocaris pteryx. “We think that this extremely rare creature is an early ancestor of squids, octopuses and other cephalopods,” says Martin Smith of University of Toronto (U of T) ’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) and the Department of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). “This is significant because it means that primitive cephalopods were around much earlier than we thought, and offers a reinterpretation of the long-held origins of...
