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Cirrothauma Chun 1911

Richard E. Young and Michael Vecchione
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The genus presently contains two species.
taxon links [up-->]Cirrothauma murrayi [up-->]Cirrothauma magna [down<--]Cirroteuthidae Interpreting the tree
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Containing group: Cirroteuthidae

Introduction

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.

Brief diagnosis: 

A cirroteuthid ...

Characteristics

  1. Head
    1. Eyes: Eyes well developed, lenses present (C. magna) or poorly developed, without lenses (C. murrayi).
    2. Beaks: See C. magna.

  2. Arms
    1. Web nodules absent.
    2. Suckers extend to arm tips.
    3. Cirri may extend to arm tip (C. murrayi) or terminate at web margin (C. magna).

  3. Shell
    1. Shell saddle-shaped but with a saddle of moderate length.
    2. Shell with anterior-posterior length of wings more than 2.5 times length of saddle in this direction.
    3. Shell with wings triangular in lateral view (below).
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
      Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window

      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
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Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window
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


University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA


National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D. C. , USA

Page: Tree of Life Cirrothauma Chun 1911. Authored by Richard E. Young and Michael Vecchione. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Young, Richard E. and Michael Vecchione. 2012. Cirrothauma Chun 1911. Version 10 November 2012 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Cirrothauma/20095/2012.11.10 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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