Taoniinae is a subfamily containing ten

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

glass squid The family Cranchiidae comprises the approximately 60 species of glass squid, also known as cockatoo squid, cranchiid, cranch squid, or bathyscaphoid squid. Cranchiid squid occur in surface and midwater depths of open oceans around the world. The ...

Description

Unlike Cranchiinae , the other subfamily within Cranchiidae , Taoniinae all lack

cartilaginous Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints as articular cartilage, and is a structural component of many body parts including the rib cage, the neck and ...

strips which extend back from the funnel-mantle point of fusion. Their funnels are free laterally, and they have one to three

photophore A photophore is a glandular organ that appears as luminous spots on various marine animals, including fish and cephalopods. The organ can be simple, or as complex as the human eye; equipped with lenses, shutters, color filters and reflectors, ...

s on the eyes. The largest photophore is crescent-shaped for most genera, but it's triangular in '' Helicocranchia'', a semicircle in '' Bathothauma'', and circular in '' Sandalops''. This is in contrast to glass squids in the subfamily Cranchiinae, which have at least four small photophores which are round or oval in shape. In addition, males lack hectocotyli; these are arms which have evolved to specialize in storage and transfer of

spermatophores A spermatophore or sperm ampulla is a capsule or mass containing spermatozoa created by males of various animal species, especially salamanders and arthropods, and transferred in entirety to the female's ovipore during reproduction. Spermatophores ...

to females. Taoniinae are also often larger than Cranchiinae and have darker

beak The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food ...

s. Another characteristic is that a Taoniinae's

caecum The cecum or caecum is a pouch within the peritoneum that is considered to be the beginning of the large intestine. It is typically located on the right side of the body (the same side of the body as the appendix, to which it is joined). The w ...

, is smaller than its stomach; in Cranchiinae, the caecum is larger than the stomach.

Taxonomic history and synonyms

When

Georg Johann Pfeffer Georg Johann Pfeffer (1854–1931) was a German zoologist, primarily a malacologist, a scientist who studies mollusks. Pfeffer was born in Berlin. In 1887 he became curator of the , which was established in 1843 and destroyed during World War II. ...

circumscribed this subfamily in 1912, he grouped its genera into three

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...

s: * ''Taonius''-like Taoniinae ** ''Phasmatopsis'' ** ''Toxeuma'' ** ''

Taonius ''Taonius'' is a small genus of glass squid. Although it comprises only three recognised species, it has been suggested there may be as many as five species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank o ...

'' ** ''Desmoteuthis'' ** '' Megalocranchia'' ** ''Taonidium'' ** ''Crystalloteuthis'' ** ''Phasmatoteuthion'' ** ''

Galiteuthis ''Galiteuthis'' is a genus of glass squids from the family Cranchiidae and the subfamily Taoniinae. Squids in the genus ''Galiteuthis'' are large squids with mantle lengths measuring up to 660mm, although it has been suggested that mantle leng ...

'' ** ''Corynomma'' * ''Teuthowenia''-like Taoniinae ** '' Teuthowenia'' * ''Bathothauma''-like Taoniinae ** '' Bathothauma''

Synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

s of Taoniinae include Galiteuthinae and Teuthoweniinae .

S. Stillman Berry Samuel Stillman Berry (March 16, 1887 – April 9, 1984) was an American marine zoologist specialized in cephalopods. Early life Berry was born in Unity, Maine, but the family home was the Winnecook Ranch in Montana, which had been founded ...

's 1912 circumscription of the subfamily Galiteuthinae only consisted of its type genus ''

'' . Like Pfeffer's Taoniinae, this was a subfamily within the family Cranchiidae . This was in contrast to

Louis Joubin Louis Marie Adolphe Olivier Édouard Joubin (27 February 1861 in Épinal – 24 April 1935 in Paris) was a professor at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. He published works on nemerteans, chaetognatha, cephalopods, and other ...

's classification, which placed ''Galiteuthis'' in a new, distinct family: ''Cranchionychiae'' .

Georg Grimpe Johann Georg Grimpe (16 February 1889, in Leipzig – 22 January 1936) was a German zoologist and malacologist. He studied zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Leipzig, where under the influence of Carl Chun (1852–1914), he focus ...

's 1922 circumscription of Teuthoweniinae included its type genus '' Teuthowenia'' as well as ''Hensenioteuthis'' , '' Helicocranchia'' , and '' Sandalops'' . He placed the genus '' Bathothauma'' into a new family, Bathothaumatidae , now just treated as a junior synonym of Cranchiidae. Subsequent research did not pay much heed to Grimpe's taxonomy.

Phylogeny

Below is Nancy A. Voss and Robert S. Voss's 1983 proposal for a

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

of the Taoniinae subfamily.

Genera and species

, the

World Register of Marine Species The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scientific specialist ...

classifies the Taoniinae as containing ten genera; they classify ''Belonella'' as a synonym of ''Taonius'' following Nancy A. Voss. However, Patrizia Jereb and Clyde F. E. Roper recognize ''Belonella'' as a distinct genus from ''Taonius'', although they also note they are a frequently synonymized. Jereb and Roper also note Kir Nazimovich Nesis and Takashi Okutani as

teuthologist Teuthology (from Greek , " cuttlefish, squid", and , ''-logia'') is the study of cephalopods such as octopus, squid, and cuttlefish.

s who rejected Voss's synonymization of ''Belonella''. Nesis's classification had ''Taonius'' consisting of only the single species ''T. pavo'', and had ''Belonella'' consisting of ''B. belone'' , ''B. borealis'' and an undescribed species from the Antarctic. *Genus '' Bathothauma'' **'' Bathothauma lyromma'' *Genus '' Egea'' **'' Egea inermis'' *Genus ''

'' **'' Galiteuthis armata'' , armed cranch squid **''

Galiteuthis glacialis ''Galiteuthis glacialis'' is a species of glass squid from the Antarctic Convergence. It is in the cranchiidae family and subfamily taoniinae. They are endemic to the Antarctic and are found in the Southern Ocean, around the Weddell Sea and South ...

'' **'' Galiteuthis pacifica'' **''

Galiteuthis phyllura ''Galiteuthis phyllura'', also known as the cockatoo squid, is a species of glass squid, possibly the largest in the genus. In 1984, the Russian stern-trawler ''Novoulianovsk'' brought up the remains of a gigantic specimen of ''G. phyllura'' fr ...

'' **'' Galiteuthis suhmi'' *Genus '' Helicocranchia'' **'' Helicocranchia joubini'' **'' Helicocranchia papillata'' **'' Helicocranchia pfefferi'' *Genus '' Liguriella'' **'' Liguriella podophthalma'' *Genus '' Megalocranchia'' **'' Megalocranchia fisheri'' **'' Megalocranchia maxima'' **'' Megalocranchia oceanica'' *Genus '' Mesonychoteuthis'' **'' Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni'', colossal squid or Antarctic cranch squid *Genus '' Sandalops'' **'' Sandalops melancholicus'' , sandal-eyed equid *Genus ''

'' **''

Taonius borealis ''Taonius borealis'' is a glass squid belonging to the genus Taonius. It is found in the North Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the nort ...

'' **''

Taonius pavo ''Taonius pavo'' is a species of glass squid found in the Atlantic Ocean. Its exact geographic distribution is uncertain, but it may extend to the southwestern Indian Ocean through the Agulhas Current. They are eaten by the sperm whale ...

'' **''

Taonius belone ''Taonius belone'' is a glass squid belonging to the genus ''Taonius'' from the family Cranchiidae. It occurs in the northern subtropical and in the tropical or equatorial waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Description ''Taonius belone'' i ...

'' *Genus '' Teuthowenia'' **'' Teuthowenia maculata'' **'' Teuthowenia megalops'' , Atlantic cranch squid **'' Teuthowenia pellucida'' , googly-eyed glass squid

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q3515395 Squid Taxa named by Georg Johann Pfeffer