octopus tentacle fossil - probably :-)

[curious aardvark]

This is a fossil I found about 40 years ago as a young sprog. It's a small section on a large hard rock, approxmately 32mm long by 16mm wide. It's not large, but is extremely well detailed. At the moment it serves as door stop for my workshop door. Over the years I've tried on and off to find some information about it and fossilised octopus tentacles in general - so far to no avail.
I believe I even sent an email to the british natural history museum, a few years back - but never got a reply.

So can anyone tell me anything about it, is there any way of determining age, and is it worth anything ? I've never seen anything else even remotely similiar, and can't find any fossilised octopus tentacles for sale onl. But then I'm neither a cephlapoid nor fossil expert

 

[tonmo]

Welcome to TONMO! We love your doorstop

Just a small point but could help in your search - octopuses have arms, not tentacles. Squid have 8 arms, and 2 tentacles.

Certain species have singular suckers lining their arms/tentacles (as pictured), but it's more common to see sucker clusters or rows of 2.

The "lining" is an interesting feature; I'm not sure of the technical name for that. I wonder if this wouldn't align with some other kind of sea creature or even some kind of plant?

Need an expert to weigh in!

 

[Architeuthoceras]

Welcome to TONMO !

What you have is the impression of an Echinoid or Sea Urchin. See more photos here. The circles in the center were the bases of the spines.

 

[Baryonyx]

Sorry man but that's no octopus fossil. This is the imprint of part of an animal called an echinoderm. You might know them better as sea urchins.
Here's a zoomed-in picture of an echinoid that shows this off really well.

 

[curious aardvark]

oh well - still a pretty cool doorstop