Muensterellidae is a family of stem-

octopod An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like other ...

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 ''Gladius'' () is a Latin word properly referring to the type of sword that was used by Ancient Rome, ancient Roman foot soldiers starting from the 3rd century BC and until the 3rd century AD. Linguistically, within Latin, the word also came t ...

called the patella. This type of gladius is likely ancestral to the gladius remnants of modern octopuses.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q30434538 Octopuses Prehistoric cephalopod families