Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrongity wrong-wrong wrong.
The inclusion of Chandra Wickramasinghe as co-author should have rung a warning bell. This is more panspermia nonsense. It’s science fiction, not science.
If octopodes were from space we should expect them to share NO genes with the rest of life on earth. We should expect them to have completely different metabolic systems, possibly using different amino acids or different bases or PNA instead of DNA or something like that.
There is no justification in the paper whatsoever for the absurd claims of extraterrestrial origins. Which do you think is more likely: alien life forms, a completely foreign tree of life, managed the ridiculously improbably journey to Earth, and survived, and flourished, and JUST HAPPENED to look like something that evolved here in terms of genetics, metabolism, and cellular biology; OR genes changed in the cephalopod lineage a little faster than these “scientists” think they should have?
Anyway, cephalopod fossil records are pretty extensive. We have good evidence of when cephalopods originated and from what, and the old ones look very little like modern octopodes and squids. They look like, frankly, snails whose foot has turned into several appendages.
