This is only a few centimeters big. There's no way it could predate on dinosaurs... /s
this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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From the middle Jurassic around 164 million years ago, putting it smack in the middle of the age of dinosaurs.
That's not what is in the image you posted which is a protoceroctopus. Your link also states
Although it was originally identified as an extinct cephalopod,[1] later studies denied that interpretation.
Yeah! I was reading it, really interesting creature. Was hoping other people could comment more on it.
I thought soft-tissue didn't fossilise. Cephalopods don't have skeletons, then what exactly is getting fossilised here?
There are different types of fossils, some of which apply to soft tissue:
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Impression: A shallow imprint of a fossil organism that does not retain any organic material.
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Compression: A fossil that has been crushed or flattened but retains some organic material, although it has been chemically altered.
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Carbonization: A process that occurs during fossilization in which complex organic molecules are converted into a more stable carbon compound that generally has a dark brown color.
This appears to be an impression fossil.
I'll add that the entire organism can fossilize in an anoxic environment with rapid burial.
Happened all the time. It just depends on the environment. Check out basically anything on the "Tully monster" if you want to know more.
Tully monsters are actually even older than OPs fossil and we have no idea where they came from or where they went, from an evolutionary perspective.
Ok.
I mean, there were weird things in the waters at the time and those grabber noses(?) were all the hype.
Iirc the closest modern day relative is some form of sea slug. How you go from spore to slug has got to be a wild journey
I know those guys and know what happened to them
They were my creations in Spore and went extinct after trying to sing their way into the heart of some purple, venomous, bipedal creature
Im still convinced they are not native to earth and just landed here on an asteroid
Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!
That's specifically octopi, right? Because there were cephalopods around that lived through the Great Dying.
That's only it's head. To understand the entire being, imagine it with a humanoid body attached.
We're their ant farm