Cirroteuthis

Cirroteuthis
Cirroteuthis muelleri observed during the Arctic 2005 Exploration, NOAA-OE
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Order: Octopoda
Family: Cirroteuthidae
Genus: Cirroteuthis
Eschricht, 1838
Type species
Cirroteuthis muelleri
Eschricht, 1838
Species

Cirroteuthis muelleri Eschricht, 1838 Cirroteuthis kirrilyae Verhoeff & O'Shea, 2025

Synonyms

Sciadephorus Reinhardt and Prosch, 1846

Cirroteuthis is a genus of cirrate octopus containing two species. It was the first genus (and contains the first species) of cirrate octopus to be described (in 1838). It is closely related to the genus Cirrothauma within the family Cirroteuthidae.

The type species (C. muelleri) is restricted to the Arctic Ocean and far North Atlantic. Specimens from the Pacific, Indian Ocean and southern hemisphere, which have been referred to as the big-finned jellyhead or C. cf. muelleri, have recently been attributed to a separate species Cirroteuthis kirrilyae Verhoeff & O'Shea, 2025 (based on both morphological and molecular data).