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The terrifyingly powerful Gorgon of Greek mythology may have been inspired by the octopus or squid, the octopus's body representing the severed head of Medusa, the beak as the protruding tongue and fangs, and its tentacles as the snakes. [172] The NROL-39 mission patch, depicting the National Reconnaissance Office as an octopus with a long reach
All living members of Octopodiformes have eight arms, either lacking the two tentacles of squid (as is the case in octopuses) or modifying the tentacles into thin filaments (as in vampire squid). Octopodiformes is often considered the crown group of octopuses and vampire squids, including all descendants of their common ancestor.
Octopus is the largest genus of octopuses, comprising about 100 species.These species are widespread throughout the world's oceans. Many species formerly placed in the genus Octopus are now assigned to other genera within the family.
An octopus (pl.: octopuses or octopodes [a]) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (/ ɒ k ˈ t ɒ p ə d ə /, ok-TOP-ə-də [3]).The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids.
Taningia danae, the Dana octopus squid, is a species of squid in the family Octopoteuthidae. It is one of the largest known squid species, reaching a mantle length of 1.7 m (5.6 ft) [3] and total length of 2.3 m (7.5 ft). [4] The largest known specimen, a mature female, weighed 161.4 kg (356 lb). [5]
The oldest samples dated to the 1990s, but when sequenced, their genes provided what was essentially a detailed family tree going back millions of years. Octopus family tree.
Order Sepiida – cuttlefish, pygmy, bobtail and bottletail squid; Order Spirulida – ram's horn squid; Superorder Octopodiformes. Family †Trachyteuthididae (incertae sedis) Order Vampyromorphida: vampire squid; Order Octopoda: octopus; Superorder Palaeoteuthomorpha. Order †Boletzkyida (uncertain order) family †Ostenoteuthidae [12]
The cephalopods have a long geological history, with the first nautiloids found in late Cambrian strata. [1]The class developed during the middle Cambrian, and underwent pulses of diversification during the Ordovician period [2] to become diverse and dominant in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic seas.