SUPERFAMILY CHIROTEUTHOIDEA GRAY, 1849

(41 SPECIES)

Diagnosis: Ammoniacal and weakly muscled Oegopsida with a secondary adult tentacular club but with primary tentacle club in early stages, with protective membranes on clubs symmetrical or subsymmetrical, without carpal locking apparatus, without keel, without terminal pad; buccal connectives attach ventrally to ventral arms; funnel–mantle locking apparatus usually oval, although sometimes modified by projections (tragus and/or antitragus), reaching the anterior margin of the mantle; fins usually terminal; often with a long tail supported by the secondary conus of the gladius during some stages of development.

Remarks: Tragus and antitragus refer to two protruding knobs found in the funnel–mantle locking apparatus of some Chiroteuthoidea; see Young & Vecchione (2019c) for more information. Adults of the paedomorphic genus Planctoteuthis Pfeffer, 1912 retain the primary club; hence, the morphological characters related to the tentacle morphology in this diagnosis do not apply to this genus. The funnel–mantle locking apparatus of Grimalditeuthis bonplandi (Vérany, 1839) is fused.