165-mn-yr-old fossil of 'octopus-like' animals' ancestor
A recently studied 165 million-year-old 'octopus-like' fossilised creature may be the ancestor of an order of animals called 'Octopodiformes,' which includes modern octopuses and species like the vampire squid. The fossil, 'Proteroctopus ribeti,' lived during the Jurassic Period and was first described in 1982. It is rare for a fossilised octopus to be so "well-preserved", scientists claimed.