Muensterellidae
Family of octopuses
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Muensterellidae is a family of stem-octopod cephalopods from the Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous.
| Muensterellidae Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| |
| Fossil of Muensterella scutellaris | |
 | |
| Speculative reconstruction of Enchoteuthis melanae | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Cephalopoda |
| Order: | Octopoda |
| Superfamily: | †Muensterelloidea |
| Family: | †Muensterellidae Roger, 1952 |
| Subgroups | |
| |
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 called the patella. This type of gladius is likely ancestral to the gladius remnants of modern octopuses.[1][2]