How many types of cephalopods are there

Fautin author. Glossary bilateral symmetry having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Read more Classification Kingdom Animalia animals Animalia: information 1 Animalia: pictures Animalia: specimens Animalia: sounds Animalia: maps Cephalopoda: information 1 Cephalopoda: pictures 25 Cephalopoda: specimens 2.

Related Taxa Species Architeuthis dux Architeuthis dux: information 1. Argonauta argo: information 1 Argonauta argo: pictures 1. Argonauta nodosa: information 1. Dosidicus gigas: information 1.

Enteroctopus dofleini: information 1. Enteroctopus megalocyathus: information 1. Euprymna scolopes: information 1. Hapalochlaena lunulata: information 1. Hapalochlaena maculosa: information 1 Hapalochlaena maculosa: pictures 1.

Idiosepius paradoxus: information 1. Loligo forbesii: information 1. Loligo pealeii: information 1 Loligo pealeii: pictures 1. Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni: information 1. Metasepia pfefferi: information 1. Nautilus pompilius: information 1 Nautilus pompilius: pictures 1. Octopus bimaculatus: information 1. Octopus briareus: information 1. Octopus cyanea: information 1. Octopus joubini: information 1.

Octopus vulgaris: information 1 Octopus vulgaris: pictures 5. Rossia pacifica: information 1. Sepia apama: information 1. Sepia latimanus: information 1 Sepia latimanus: pictures 3. Sepia officinalis: information 1 Sepia officinalis: pictures 1. Sepia pharaonis: information 1. Sepioteuthis lessoniana: information 1. Sepioteuthis sepioidea: information 1.

Spirula spirula: information 1 Spirula spirula: pictures 1. Stauroteuthis syrtensis: information 1 Stauroteuthis syrtensis: pictures 1. Stoloteuthis leucoptera: information 1 Stoloteuthis leucoptera: pictures 1. Vampyroteuthis infernalis: information 1 Vampyroteuthis infernalis: pictures 1. Watasenia scintillans: information 1. The ADW Team gratefully acknowledges their support. These ancient shelled cephalopods went through may extinctions and evolved into different species that died out during catastrophic mass extinction events.

Arms, like those on an octopus, have suction cups the entire length of the limb. Tentacles only have suction cups near the end of the limb. Some Cephalopods have arms, some have tentacles, and some have both!

All cephalopods have either arms or tentacles, have blue-colored blood, and have the ability to use propulsion to help them move swiftly when needed. They use gills to breathe and are invertebrates lack backbones. Many cephalopods grow fast and die young, the average lifespan of most is just one to three years.

Event the largest, the giant squid, grows to its gargantuan size in just a few years. The only exception is the nautilus which can live much longer. Octopus are the best known of the cephalopods with their charismatic personalities, intelligence, and diversity. There are about different types of octopus currently known, and new types are discovered by scientists relatively often, especially in the deep sea. Octopus have eight arms with two rows of suction cups extending the full length of each arm.

The arms come together at a centralized mouth with a hard parrot-like beak. Male and female octopus have the same number of arms, but males have one arm that is slightly different and is designed to hold and deposit sperm packets into the female octopus. Octopus can be found from the deep sea to coastal tide pools, and from warm tropical seas to the frigid Arctic and Antarctic Oceans.

They can be huge, like the the Giant Pacific Octopus of the cold waters of the North Pacific, whose average 50 pound weight and 15 foot arm span dwarfs most other octopus. The smallest, Octopus Wolfi, is barely 2. Octopus, in general, are masters of camouflage.

They have the ability to change both the color and texture of their skin. Specialized cells called chromatophores expand and contract exposing different pigments within the skin. This can help octopus, and other cephalopods, blend in with nearly any background and communicate their feelings to friend and foe.

By contracting different muscles, octopus can also change the texture of their skin, hiding among rocks, boulders, seaweed, or corals with ease. They are small, at less than 2. Like most octopuses, the Mimic Octopus is adept at camouflage. But the Mimic Octopus goes beyond simply blending in by actively changing its shape and color to resemble other species ranging from crabs to flatfish, sea snakes, lionfish, and jellyfish.

It uses these remarkable abilities to both evade predators and ambush prey. This video shows some of the many amazing ways the mimic octopus can change its form. Yes, the Piglet Squid is a real, living and insanely cute species of cephalopod.

The squid pictured above an unidentified species of the genus Heliocranchia was found in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Nigeria at a depth of meters where it survives amid intense pressure and nearly total darkness. Relatively little is known about Heliocranchia species due to their occurrence in deep, oceanic habitats. Only a video can do justice to the magnificence that is the Vampire Squid , a deep-sea cephalopod that is nearly unchanged in more than million years.

Rather than changing its skin color like many other cephalopods, the Vampire Squid uses tiny light-producing photophores in its skin to produce flashes of light, a much more useful skill in the darkness of the deep sea. OK, you have probably heard about nautiluses before and likely even seen their amazing shells on display.