A 300-million-year-old tentacled sea creature has lost its crown as the world’s oldest octopus, after scientists found evidence that it’s not an octopus at all.

The ancient cephalopod, Nanaimoteuthis haggarti, appears to have been an apex predator that rivaled mosasaurs to rule prehistoric seas.

For more than 25 years, a small, soft-bodied fossil pulled from an Illinois coal mine held a remarkable title: the world’s oldest known octopus. That title is now gone. A team of researchers, led by ...

A study by Dr. Martin Ebert and Dr. Martina Kölbl-Ebert examined the remains of some 4,200 Tharsis fossil specimens. They found that some of these fish, all of which were subadults, would occasionally ...

Some octopuses that lived over 72 million years ago were as long as whales. These huge predators may have been the largest invertebrates ever.

The fossil, found by Jay Anderson in a Steele County gravel pit, was identified as belonging to the genus Endoceras, from the Paleozoic Era. Michael Kjelland (left), a professor from Mayville State ...

Ancient ocean giants: Fossilized jaws from Japan suggest octopuses up to 62 feet long lived about 100 million years ago, rivaling the size of mosasaurs. Predator role debated: Jaw wear patterns hint ...

A kraken-like octopus the size of a lorry prowled Earth’s oceans back when dinosaurs ruled the land, new fossil discoveries have suggested. Scientists have believed that sharks and giant marine ...

LONDON (AP) — A 300-million-year-old tentacled sea creature has lost its crown as the world’s oldest octopus, after scientists found evidence that it’s not an octopus at all. Newly published research ...

Mesozoic seas were full of marine monsters. There were snaggle-toothed fish, shell-crushing sharks, and, of course, enormous mosasaurs. Now, researchers have revealed another dangerous denizen of the ...