''Austrorossia mastigophora'' is a species of
bobtail squid native to western, southern and eastern
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, from
Guinea and
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: ππππππππ; ar, Ψ§ΩΨ΅ΩΩ
Ψ§Ω, aαΉ£-αΉ’Ε«mΔl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
to the
Cape of Good Hope. A doubtful record of this species exists from
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
. It lives at depths to approximately 640 m.
[Reid, A. & P. Jereb 2005. Family Sepiolidae. ''In:'' P. Jereb & C.F.E. Roper, eds. ''Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of species known to date. Volume 1. Chambered nautiluses and sepioids (Nautilidae, Sepiidae, Sepiolidae, Sepiadariidae, Idiosepiidae and Spirulidae)''. FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes. No. 4, Vol. 1. Rome, FAO. pp. 153β203.]
On average, females are larger than males; they grow to 46 mm and 31 mm in
mantle length, respectively.
The
type specimen
In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes th ...
was collected in the Indian Ocean near the east African coast () by the
Valdivia Expedition
The ''Valdivia'' Expedition, or ''Deutsche Tiefsee-Expedition'' (German Deep Sea Expedition), was a scientific expedition organised and funded by the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm II and was named after the ship which was bought and outfitt ...
and the species was
described by the leader of that expedition,
Carl Chun, the description being published in 1915.
It is deposited in the Zoological Collection of the
Natural History Museum, Berlin
The Natural History Museum (german: Museum fΓΌr Naturkunde) is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major muse ...
.
Current Classification of Recent Cephalopoda
/ref>
Image:Austrorossia mastigophora3.jpg, Mantle cavity of a mature female. Arrow points to the epirenal body, the function of which is unknown.
Image:Austrorossia mastigophora2.jpg, Twisted tentacular club of the same specimen.
References
External links
Bobtail squid
Molluscs described in 1915
Taxa named by Carl Chun
{{Sepiolida-stub