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An explosion of life to match the Cambrian Age
Meanwhile, have a new fossil cephalopod: tiny, two-tentacled, jet-propelled. Nectocaris pteryx, which for some reason I had heard of (although I had not been previously aware of the term nektobenthonic; and am now resolved to drop it into the next conversation I can find). The original paper was published in Nature, for those who have a subscription. For those who do not, ask me.
To most people, molluscs are rather dull creatures: slugs, snails, clams, mussels and such, at times good for eating but otherwise uninteresting. Yet everyone harbours a fascination for cephalopods, which are also molluscs: the octopus, the chambered nautilus, the cuttlefish and the squid, not least the mythical giant Kraken that Alfred, Lord Tennyson pictured in "ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep" in the ocean abyss . . .
To most people, molluscs are rather dull creatures: slugs, snails, clams, mussels and such, at times good for eating but otherwise uninteresting. Yet everyone harbours a fascination for cephalopods, which are also molluscs: the octopus, the chambered nautilus, the cuttlefish and the squid, not least the mythical giant Kraken that Alfred, Lord Tennyson pictured in "ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep" in the ocean abyss . . .