Cirrothauma
Richard E. Young and Michael Vecchione
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close boxIntroduction
Traditionally only a single species, C. murrayi, was placed in this genus. O'shea (1999) placed Cirroteuthis magna in this genus on the basis of the similarity of the shells in the two species. These are fragile, gelatinous deep-sea cirrates.
Diagnosis
A cirroteuthid ...
- with shell having moderate saddle and triangular wings.
- with normal eyes or reduced eyes lacking lenses.
Characteristics
- Eyes
- Eyes well developed, lenses present (C. magna) or poorly developed, without lenses (C. murrayi).
- Arms
- Web nodules absent.
- Suckers extend to arm tips.
- Cirri may extend to arm tip (C. murrayi) or terminate at web margin (C. magna).
- Shell
- Shell saddle-shaped but with a saddle of moderate length.
- Anterior-posterior length of wings more than 2.5 times length of saddle in this direction.
- Wings triangular in lateral view (below).
Figure. Left - C. murrayi shell, dorsal view, male, 155 mm ML, North Atlantic at 44°N 13°W. Drawing modified from Aldred et al., 1983. Middle - C. murrayi shell, dorsal view, USNMNH, locality, size. Photograph by R.E. Young. Right - C. magna shell, lateral view, female, 140 mm ML. Drawing from Guerra et al., 1998, printed with the Permission of the Bulletin of Marine Science.
References
Aldred, R. G., M. Nixon and J. Z. Young. 1983. Cirrothauma murrayi Chun, a finned octopod. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. 301: 1-54.
Guerra, R., R. Villanueva, K. N. Nesis and J. Bedoya. 1998. Redescription of the deep-sea cirrate octopod Cirroteuthis magna Hoyle, 1885, and considerations on the genus Cirroteuthis (Mollusca: Cephalopoda). Bull. Mar. Sci., 63: 51-81.
Voss, G. L. and W. G. Pearcy. 1990. Deep-water octopods (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) of the Northeastern Pacific. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 47: 47-94.
Title Illustrations
| Scientific Name | Cirrothauma murrayi |
|---|---|
| Location | Antarctic waters |
| Creator | E. McSweeny |
| Copyright | © 1996 E. McSweeny |
| Scientific Name | Cirrothauma magna |
|---|---|
| Reference | Guerra, R., R. Villanueva, K. N. Nesis and J. Bedoya. 1998. Redescription of the deep-sea cirrate octopod Cirroteuthis magna Hoyle, 1885, and considerations on the genus Cirroteuthis (Mollusca: Cephalopoda). Bull. Mar. Sci., 63: 51-81. |
| Acknowledgements | Printed with permission from the Bulletin of Marine Science. |
| Sex | Male |
| Size | 220 mm ML |
| Copyright | © 1998 Bulletin of Marine Science |
About This Page
Richard E. Young
Dept of Oceanography
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
USA
National Marine Fisheries Service
Systematics Laboratory
National Museum of Natural History
Washington, D. C. 20560
USA
Page copyright © 2003 Richard E. Young and
Citing this page:
Young, Richard E. and Vecchione, Michael. 2003. Cirrothauma . Version 01 January 2003 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Cirrothauma/20095/2003.01.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
