Muensterellidae is a family of stem-

octopod An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) 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 ...

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 meaning "sword" (of any type), but in its narrow sense it refers to the sword of ancient Roman foot soldiers. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those of the Greeks, called '' xiphe'' (plural; singular ''xi ...

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