Pohlsepia mazonensis

Taxobox
fossil_range = Pennsylvanian
name = "Pohlsepia mazonensis"

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image_caption = Photograph and drawing of holotype. Click on image for details.
status = fossil
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Cephalopoda
subclassis = Coleoidea
superordo = Octopodiformes
ordo = Octopoda
subordo = (basal)
familia = "incertae sedis"
genus = "Pohlsepia"
genus_authority = Kluessendorf & Doyle, 2000
species = "P. mazonensis"
binomial = "Pohlsepia mazonensis"
binomial_authority = Kluessendorf & Doyle, 2000
synonyms =

"Pohlsepia mazonensis" is the earliest described octopod, dated at approximately 296Verify source|date=July 2007 million years old. The species is known from a single exceptionally preserved fossil discovered in the Pennyslvanian Francis Creek Shale of the Carbondale Formation, NE Illinois, USA.Kluessendorf, J. & P. Doyle 2000. "Pohlsepia mazonensis", an early 'octopus' from the Carboniferous of Illinois, USA. "Palaeontology" 43(5): 919-926. doi|10.1111/1475-4983.00155 [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1475-4983.00155 PDF fulltext] ]

"Pohlsepia mazonensis" is named after its discoverer, James Pohl, and the type locality, Mazon Creek. Its habitat was the shallows seawards of a major river delta in what at that time was an inland ocean between the Midwest and the Appalachians.

The type specimen is deposited at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois.

ee also

*"Jeletzkya douglassae"
*"Proteroctopus ribeti"
*"Palaeoctopus newboldi"
*"Vampyronassa rhodanica"

References

External links

* [http://www.tonmo.com/science/fossils/fossiloctopuses.php The Octopus News Magazine Online: Fossil Octopuses]