The fossil of Syllipsimopodi is from the Invertebrate Paleontology collections of the Royal Ontario Museum. Photo: Christopher Whalen

NPR reports that researchers say they have found the oldest known relative of octopuses and vampire squids, in a fossil dug up decades ago in Montana.

The official name of the newly discovered species is Syllipsimopodi bideni, named after President Joe Biden, in a nod to what the researchers say is his embrace of science.

The well-preserved 328-million-year-old fossil was discovered in Montana’s Bear Gulch Limestone in 1988, but it hasn’t been closely studied until now.

The creature is a vampyropod — a soft-bodied creature in the group that also contains octopuses and vampire squid.

But unlike both of those creatures, this newly described species has 10 arms — the only known vampyropod to do so, according to new research published in the journal Nature Communications.

President Biden is not the only resident of the Oval Office to have a newly identified species named after him. In 2018, a newly discovered blind and burrowing amphibian was officially named Dermophis donaldtrumpi, in recognition of the twice impeached former US president’s climate change denial.