Species
This family is taxonomically misunderstood. With many species represented by single, damaged, and juvenile specimens, this group is still creating controversy in the taxonomic community. Salcedo-Vargas and Okutani (1994) reclassified the family and eliminated the genus Echinoteuthis, added two subgenera, and reduced the number of species to eight. Three years later, after the careful examination of skin tubercles and photophores, Salcedo-Vargas eliminated his subgenera, and increased the number of species to 17 (Salcedo-Vargas, 1997).
- Genus Idioteuthis
- Idioteuthis latipinna
- Idioteuthis cordiformis
- Idioteuthis hjorti
- Idioteuthis okutanii
- ?Idioteuthis danae
- ?Idioteuthis famelica
- Idioteuthis tyroi
- Genus Mastigoteuthis
- Mastigoteuthis agassizii
- Mastigoteuthis atlantica
- Mastigoteuthis dentata
- ? Mastigoteuthis flammea
- Mastigoteuthis glaukopis
- Mastigoteuthis grimaldii
- Mastigoteuthis inermis
- Mastigoteuthis iselini
- Mastigoteuthis magna
- Mastigoteuthis microlucens
- Mastigoteuthis psychrophila
- Mastigoteuthis pyrodes
- ? Mastigoteuthis schmidti
The question mark (?) indicates questionable placement within the genus. The specific arrangement of the species under Idioteuthis indicates 4 different subgroups under revision. I. famelica is now verified to be member of genus Mastigoteuthis.
Read more about this topic: Whip-lash Squid
Famous quotes containing the word species:
“A man can go from being a lover to being a stranger in three moves flat ... but a woman under the guise of friendship will engage in acts of duplicity which come to light very much later. There are different species of self-justification.”
—Anita Brookner (b. 1938)
“As kings are begotten and born like other men, it is to be presumed that they are of the human species; and perhaps, had they the same education, they might prove like other men. But, flattered from their cradles, their hearts are corrupted, and their heads are turned, so that they seem to be a species by themselves.... Flattery cannot be too strong for them; drunk with it from their infancy, like old drinkers, they require dreams.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (16941773)
“Single-mindedness is all very well in cows or baboons; in an animal claiming to belong to the same species as Shakespeare it is simply disgraceful.”
—Aldous Huxley (18941963)