Paleontologists from the University of Toronto and the Royal Museum of Ontario (ROM) in Canada have found thatcephalopods emerged 500 million years ago with a carnivorous squid, theNectocaris pteryx, which has been classified for the first time within the cephalopod family together with the octopus, squid, cuttlefish, nautilus and the now extinct ammonites and belemnites.
“This discovery is important because it means that primitive cephalopods appeared 30 million years earlier than thought and offers a reinterpretation of the origins of this important group of marine animals,” explained the researcher from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and from the department of ROM Natural History, Martin Smith, who led the study, published inNature. The new interpretation has been possible thanks to the discovery of 91 fossils that were collected by the ROM in the last thirty years.
The new specimens, which are between two and five centimeters long, show that theNectocaris I hadKite-shaped, it was smooth, with large eyes and a pair of long tentacles that, according to the researchers, helped it hunt and eat its prey. In addition, they point out that the creature swam using its side flippers and, like modern cephalopods, was accelerated by jet propulsion.
Another feature of theNectocaris the thing ishas no shell, a fact that has surprised scientists. “It has long been believed that cephalopods evolved in the Upper Cambrian, until there were gradual modifications in the shells of animals like snails that made them able to float.”
