A potential cephalopod from the early Cambrian of eastern Newfoundland, Canada

Although an early Cambrian origin of cephalopods has been suggested by molecular studies, no unequivocal fossil evidence has yet been presented. Septate shells collected from shallow-marine limestone of the lower Cambrian (upper Terreneuvian, c. 522Ma) Bonavista Formation of southeastern Newfoundland, Canada, are here interpreted as straight, elongate conical cephalopod phragmocones. The material documented here may push the origin of cephalopods back in time by about 30Ma to an unexpected early stage of the Cambrian biotic radiation of metazoans, i.e. before the first occurrence of euarthropods. Hildenbrand, Austermann et al. present new material from the early Cambrian of Newfoundland that potentially backdates the evolution of cephalopods to before euarthropods. The material is most closely aligned with the Cephalopoda, lending a tentative assignment and significant potential implications for the origin of this molluscan group.