Tag Archive for 'Octobrachian'

An artist’s impression of an ancient giant octopus. Image credit: Yohei Utsuki, Hokkaido University.

In Cretaceous Oceans, Giant ‘Kraken-Like’ Octopuses May Have Been Top Predators

Apr 27, 2026 by News Staff

Massive, soft-bodied cephalopods up to 19 m (62 feet) long rivaled — and perhaps hunted — the ocean’s fiercest reptiles in the Cretaceous...

Reconstruction of a Paleocadmus decaying in the Mazon Creek marine basin; the separated shell is visible in the background; other Mazon Creek fauna are visible, such as the polychaete Esconites zelus (foreground) and Bandringa rayi, an elasmobranch shark (back left). Image credit: Franz Anthony.

‘Oldest Fossil Octopus’ Wasn’t One After All

Apr 8, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Pohlsepia mazonensis, a cephalopod species first described in 2000 from a 300-million-year-old specimen and featured in the Guinness Book of Records as...