David Peterman in the AMMLab (Ammonoid Motility Modeling Laboratory) holding a 3-D-printed reconstruction of the planispiral ammonite, Paracoroniceras lyra. David Peterman, Kathleen Ritterbush and ...

University of Utah paleontologists David Peterman and Kathleen Ritterbush know that it's one thing to use math and physics to understand how ancient marine creatures moved through the water. It's ...

These extinct shelled cephalopods ruled the ocean for 300 million years. But how they swam and shaped the seas remains a mystery. "Snake stones" or ancient sea creature? Credit: opacity/flickr/CC ...

The continents were in a different configuration, so yes, the ocean currents were a bit different. Lots of shallow seas, too. Here's an image from Scotese's Paleomap Project to give you an idea of ...

In a university swimming pool, scientists and their underwater cameras watch carefully as a coiled shell is released from a pair of metal tongs. The shell begins to move under its own power, giving ...

Scientists scanned a fossil of the Jurassic cephalopod Vampyronassa, pictured here, and found clues that it was an active hunter. A. Lethiers, CR2P-SU Finding and studying fossils of Earth’s ...

The oldest ancestor of modern octopuses lived 328 million years ago and had 10 arms, according to a new study. Researchers have named the previously unknown species Syllipsimopodi bideni after US ...

The oldest ancestor of modern octopuses lived 328 million years ago and had 10 arms, according to a new study. Researchers have named the previously unknown species Syllipsimopodi bideni after US ...

An unusual-looking underwater creature named Diplomoceras maximum existed around 68 million years ago, and new research says it lived to a ripe old age. Journalist Bonnie Burton writes about movies, ...

To demonstrate how smart an octopus can be, Piero Amodio points to a YouTube video. It shows an octopus pulling two halves of a coconut shell together to hide inside. Later the animal stacks the ...

These five research-backed insights show why the octopus remains one of the most extraordinary minds in the animal kingdom.

Robotic ammonites, evaluated in a university pool, allow researchers to explore questions about how shell shapes affected swimming ability. They found trade-offs between stability in the water and ...