A False Identity
An octopus was in the record book
For having been the oldest in its long
Ancestral pedigree. But what you look
Like isn't what you were. The book was wrong:
Strange blobs are hard to tell apart when they've
Endured three hundred million years below
Immense dead weight of rock above their grave.
Dentition outs a record that is faux:
Exceeding nine in dental number thus
Negates the fossil's octopoidal claim
To fame—it was instead a nautilus,
Inside a false identity ... To name
The fossil specimen you found beneath
Your ancient rocks correctly, count its teeth!
(First published on 4th May, 2026 in
Oddball Magazine. Story here)
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