Palaeoctopus

Palaeoctopus is an extinct genus of octopuses that lived during the Late Cretaceous. It contains one valid species, P. newboldi, which has been found in Lebanon.

Palaeoctopus
Temporal range:
Holotype of Palaeoctopus newboldi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Mollusca
Class:
Cephalopoda
Order:
Octopoda
Suborder:
Incirrata
Family:
†Palaeoctopodidae
Genus:
†Palaeoctopus

Type species
†Palaeoctopus newboldi
(Woodward, 1896a)[2]
Synonyms
Genus synonymy
Species synonymy
    • Calais newboldi
      Woodward, 1896a
    • Calaita newboldi
      (Woodward, 1896a)
    • Beloteuthis libanotica
      Naef, 1922[6]
    • Parateudopsis libanotica
      (Naef, 1922)

Taxonomy

Calais newboldi was named by Henry B. Woodward in 1896 for a nearly-complete specimen from the Sahel Alma lagerstätte of Lebanon.[2] However, that genus name was preoccupied by the beetle Calais.[3] Woodward named Palaeoctopus as a replacement later the same year.[1] Embrik Strand proposed the alternate replacement name Calaita in 1928.[4]

Beloteuthis libanotica was named by Adolf Naef in 1922 for a supposed teudopsid gladius from Sahel Alma.[6] It was moved to a new genus, Parateudopsis, by Theo Engeser and Joachim Reitner in 1986.[5] The specimen was eventually reidentified as an isolated gladius vestige of P. newboldi.[7]

A second species, P. pelagicus, was named by Dirk Fuchs and colleagues in 2008 for an alleged gladius vestige from the Vallecillo lagerstätte of Mexico.[8] It was subsequently revealed to be a gular plate from a coelacanth, possibly a juvenile Megalocoelacanthus.[9]

Life restoration

References
  1. Woodward, H.B. (1896b). "Calais newboldi". The Geological Magazine. New Series. 3 (12): 567. Bibcode:1896GeoM....3..567W. doi:10.1017/S0016756800135022.
  2. Woodward, H.B. (1896a). "On a fossil octopus (Calais newboldi, J. De C. Sby. MS.) from the Cretaceous of the Lebanon". The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London. 52 (206): 229–234. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1896.052.01-04.12. S2CID 130534331.
  3. Laporte, F.L.N.C. (1838). "Études entomologiques, ou descriptions d'insectes nouveaux et observations sur la synonymie". Revue Entomologique. 4: 5–60.
  4. Strand, E. (1928). "Miscellanea nomenclatorica zoologica et palaeontologica. I-II" (PDF). Archiv für Naturgeschichte. Abteilung A. 92 (8): 30–75.
  5. Engeser, T.; Reitner, J. (1986). "Coleoid remains from the Late Cretaceous of the Lebanon in the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart". Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde. Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie). 124: 1–15.
  6. Naef, A. (1922). Die Fossilen Tintenfische. Jena: Gustav Fischer. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.2082.
  7. Fuchs, D. (2010). "A rare and unusual teudopseid coleoid from the Upper Cretaceous of Hâqel (Lebanon)" (PDF). Ferrantia. 59: 61–72.
  8. Fuchs, D.; Ifrim, C.; Stinnesbeck, W. (2008). "A new Palaeoctopus (Cephalopoda: Coleoidea) from the Late Cretaceous of Vallecillo, north-eastern Mexico, and implications for the evolution of Octopoda". Palaeontology. 51 (5): 1129–1139. Bibcode:2008Palgy..51.1129F. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00797.x.
  9. Schultze, H.-P.; Fuchs, D.; Giersch, S.; Ifrim, C.; Stinnesbeck, W. (2010). "Palaeoctopus pelagicus from the Turonian of Mexico reinterpreted as a coelacanth (sarcopterygian) gular plate". Palaeontology. 53 (3): 689–694. Bibcode:2010Palgy..53..689S. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00943.x.
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