If Nectocaris was truly a cephalopod, then a derived, squid-like body evolved first, was lost, and then appeared a second time at some later date - a scenario inconsistent with the big picture of ...

Nectocaris probably used it to swim the same way, giving it an extra boost of jet propulsion to complement the beating of its large fins. It was either a predator or a scavenger, grabbing small ...

Nectocaris, as seen in a photo of the first specimen (top), a line drawing of that specimen (middle), and a restoration (bottom). From Simonetta, 1988.

Nectocaris shows us that the first cephalopods actually started swimming without the aid of gas-filled shells. Shells evolved much later, probably in response to increased levels of competition ...

A new fossil survey has revealed cephalopods like this early squid were ruling the seas over 500 million years ago. This is far earlier than previously believed. Meet Nectocaris pteryx, the ...

A study by researchers at the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum sheds new light on a previously unclassifiable 500-million-year-old squid-like carnivore known as Nectocaris pteryx.

A newly identified, 500-million-year-old squid-like creature looked like a cross between a shrimp and a cartoon alien, but it was actually one of the world's oldest and most primitive cephalopods.

Nectocaris was a small, kite-shaped creature The fossil isn't a new find - it was discovered decades ago in the Burgess Shale deposits atop a mountain in Yoho National Park in British Columbia ...

They called it Nectocaris pteryx - a small soft-bodied cephalopod with two tentacles rather than the eight or 10 seen in today's octopi. The new survey's results were presented in the journal Nature.

Over the course of the past three decades, scientists have discovered 91 new Nectocaris pteryx fossils at the Burgess Shale Formation in the Canadian Rockies, one of the world's most famous fossil ...

Nectocaris ’s new status pushes back the rise of the cephalopods by 30 million years, telling us that this popular group arose far earlier in earth’s history than previously thought. Smith and Caron ...

The authors described Nectocaris as a kite-shaped creature that was flattened from top to bottom. They say it was between two and five cm long and had large, stalked eyes.