Muensterellidae

Muensterellidae Temporal range: Kimmeridgian–Campanian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Fossil of Muensterella scutellaris
Speculative reconstruction of Enchoteuthis melanae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Cephalopoda
Order:	Octopoda
Superfamily:	† Muensterelloidea
Family:	† Muensterellidae
Subgroups
† Listroteuthis † Muensterella (paraphyletic) †Enchoteuthinae † Enchoteuthis † Niobrarateuthis † Tusoteuthis

Muensterellidae is a family of stem-octopod cephalopods from the Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous.

Phylogeny

Muensterellidae is one of two families in the superfamily Muensterelloidea along with the Patelloctopodidae. The muensterelloids are characterized by having a roughly spoon-shaped end of the gladius called the patella. This type of gladius is likely ancestral to the gladius remnants of modern octopuses. ^{[1] [2]}

References

1. Fuchs, D.; Schweigert, G. (2018). "First Middle–Late Jurassic gladius vestiges provide new evidence on the detailed origin of incirrate and cirrate octopuses (Coleoidea)". PalZ. 92 (2): 203–217. doi:10.1007/s12542-017-0399-8. S2CID   135245479.
2. Fuchs, Dirk; Iba, Yasuhiro; Heyng, Alexander; Iijima, Masaya; Klug, Christian; Larson, Neal L.; Schweigert, Günter (February 2020). Brayard, Arnaud (ed.). "The Muensterelloidea: phylogeny and character evolution of Mesozoic stem octopods" . Papers in Palaeontology. 6 (1): 31–92. doi:10.1002/spp2.1254. ISSN   2056-2802. S2CID   198256507.