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Sepiolida Keferstein, 1866

Michael Vecchione and Richard E. Young
taxon links [down<--]Sepioidea [up-->]Sepiolidae [up-->]Sepiadariidae Interpreting the tree
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Containing group: Sepioidea

Introduction

Members of the Sepiolida are short (mostly 2-8 cm ML), broad cephalopods with a rounded posterior mantle.

Diagnosis

A sepioid ...

Characteristics

  1. Head
    1. Eye pore outside of ventral eyelid.
       image info

      Figure. Lateral view of head of Rossia sp., 19 mm ML, female, preserved. Arrow points to eye pore.

  2. Mantle
    1. Dorsal margin fused to or free from head.
    2. Ventral mantle adductor present.
    3.  image info

      Figure. Ventral view of mantle cavity of Rossia sp., preserved. Arrow points to the cut surface of the ventral mantle adductor where it had attached to the ventral mantle wall. Anteriorly the adductor muscles pass to either side of the intestine. Photograph by R. Young.

  3. Fins
    1. Fins broad (length ca. less than two times, usually equal to, individual fin width).
    2. Attachment of posterior fin-lobes broadly separated.

  4. Shell
    1. Shell a thin or rudimentary gladius or absent.
Title Illustrations
Scientific Name Sepioloidea lineolata, Iridoteuthis iris
Copyright © 2004 Mark Noman, Thomas Burch
About This Page



National Marine Fisheries Service
Systematics Laboratory
National Museum of Natural History
Washington, D. C. 20560
USA

Richard E. Young

Dept of Oceanography
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
USA

Citing this page:

Vecchione, Michael and Young, Richard E. 2004. Sepiolida Keferstein, 1866. Version 21 August 2004 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Sepiolida/23872/2004.08.21 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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This page is a Tree of Life Branch Page.

Each ToL branch page provides a synopsis of the characteristics of a group of organisms representing a branch of the Tree of Life. The major distinction between a branch and a leaf of the Tree of Life is that each branch can be further subdivided into descendent branches, that is, subgroups representing distinct genetic lineages.

For a more detailed explanation of the different ToL page types, have a look at the Structure of the Tree of Life page.

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Sepiolida

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