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The ancestors of modern, squishy cephalopods like the octopus and the squid all had shells. In ancient times, their shell was their greatest asset but it eventually proved to be their biggest weakness.

Special thanks to Franz Anthony for the beautiful cephalopod reconstructions. You can see more of Franz's tremendous work at http://252mya.com

And thanks as always to Nobumichi Tamura for allowing us to use his wonderful paleoart: http://spinops.blogspot.com/

Produced for PBS Digital Studios.

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References:
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/taxa/inv...
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/...
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10...
http://www.deepseanews.com/2017/10/ho...
https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
https://link.springer.com/article/10....
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/...
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10...
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/...
Squid Empire by Danna Staaf: http://www.cephalopodiatrist.com/p/sq...