Octopus origins

Tiny, ancestral cephalopod had just two tentacles

Some of the earliest relatives of today’s octopuses, squid and cuttlefish had only two tentacles and measured no longer than a child’s little finger, a new study suggests.

JET PROPELLED New fossils of Nectocaris pteryx (illustration shown), a species previously known only from a single, poorly preserved specimen, suggest that the creature is an early relative of today’s octopuses, squid and other cephalopods.