Overlooked fossil turns out to be oldest known ancestor of octopuses
Found in Montana’s Bear Gulch limestone formation, the unassuming 12cm (4.72inch) fossil was subsequently donated to the Royal Ontario Museum in 1988. And there it lay quietly in a drawer in the Invertebrate Palaeontology collection for decades while scientists fussed over fossil sharks and other creatures from the site.
Until, one day, palaeontologists noticed the fossil’s 10 limbs and took a closer look.