- Joined
- Nov 19, 2002
- Messages
- 3,031
I can't seem to edit my old post so here is a copy of the old diagram I hijacked and adopted from another site (TOL I think). Hope it makes sense in context of the discussion.
Oh, and since I wrote that post above, the oldest octopus known is no longer the Jurassic Proteroctopus, it is now Pohlsepia, dated to a whacking great ancient date of 296 million during the Carboniferous. It may, or may not, have evolved from the primitive vampyromorphs, or may have stemmed from a common ancestor in the late Devonian. The absolute lack of truly ancient octopus fossils makes nothing certain.
Oh, and since I wrote that post above, the oldest octopus known is no longer the Jurassic Proteroctopus, it is now Pohlsepia, dated to a whacking great ancient date of 296 million during the Carboniferous. It may, or may not, have evolved from the primitive vampyromorphs, or may have stemmed from a common ancestor in the late Devonian. The absolute lack of truly ancient octopus fossils makes nothing certain.
