Palaeoctopus

{{Automatic_taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossil range|86.3|83.6|Santonian}}

| image = Palaeoctopus newboldi.jpg

| image_caption = Holotype of Palaeoctopus newboldi

| taxon = Palaeoctopus

| authority = Woodward, 1896b{{cite journal |last=Woodward |first=H.B. |date=1896b |title=Calais newboldi |journal=The Geological Magazine |series=New Series |volume=3 |issue=12 |pages=567 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/96075#page/609/mode/1up |doi=10.1017/S0016756800135022|bibcode=1896GeoM....3..567W |doi-access=free }}

| type_species = †Palaeoctopus newboldi

| type_species_authority = (Woodward, 1896a){{cite journal |last=Woodward |first=H.B. |date=1896a |title=On a fossil octopus (Calais newboldi, J. De C. Sby. MS.) from the Cretaceous of the Lebanon |journal=The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London |volume=52 |issue=206 |pages=229–234 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/2444764 |doi=10.1144/GSL.JGS.1896.052.01-04.12|s2cid=130534331 }}

| synonyms =

{{collapsible list|title=Genus synonymy|

Calais
Woodward, 1896a (preoccupied by Calais Laporte, 1838){{cite journal |last=Laporte |first=F.L.N.C. |date=1838 |title= Études entomologiques, ou descriptions d'insectes nouveaux et observations sur la synonymie |journal=Revue Entomologique |volume=4 |pages=5–60 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/82334#page/13/mode/1up}}
Calaita
Strand, 1928{{cite journal |last=Strand |first=E. |date=1928 |title= Miscellanea nomenclatorica zoologica et palaeontologica. I-II. |journal=Archiv für Naturgeschichte |series=Abteilung A |volume=92 |issue=8 |pages=30–75 |url=https://mndi.museunacional.ufrj.br/aracnologia/pdfliteratura/Strand%201926%20Miscellanea%20I-II.pdf}}
Parateudopsis
Engeser & Reitner, 1986{{cite journal |last1=Engeser |first1=T. |last2=Reitner |first2=J. |date=1986 |title=Coleoid remains from the Late Cretaceous of the Lebanon in the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart |journal=Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde |series=Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie) |volume=124 |pages=1–15 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/95136#page/521/mode/1up}}

}}

{{collapsible list|title=Species synonymy|

Calais newboldi
Woodward, 1896a
Calaita newboldi
(Woodward, 1896a)
Beloteuthis libanotica
Naef, 1922{{cite book |last=Naef |first=A. |date=1922 |title=Die Fossilen Tintenfische |location=Jena |publisher=Gustav Fischer |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.2082 |doi-access=free }}
Parateudopsis libanotica
(Naef, 1922)

}}

Palaeoctopus is an extinct genus of octopuses that lived during the Late Cretaceous. It contains one valid species, P. newboldi, which has been found in Lebanon.

Taxonomy

Calais newboldi was named by Henry B. Woodward in 1896 for a nearly-complete specimen from the Sahel Alma lagerstätte of Lebanon. However, that genus name was preoccupied by the beetle Calais. Woodward named Palaeoctopus as a replacement later the same year. Embrik Strand proposed the alternate replacement name Calaita in 1928.

Beloteuthis libanotica was named by Adolf Naef in 1922 for a supposed teudopsid gladius from Sahel Alma. It was moved to a new genus, Parateudopsis, by Theo Engeser and Joachim Reitner in 1986. The specimen was eventually reidentified as an isolated gladius vestige of P. newboldi.{{cite journal |last=Fuchs |first=D. |date=2010 |title=A rare and unusual teudopseid coleoid from the Upper Cretaceous of Hâqel (Lebanon) |journal=Ferrantia |volume=59 |pages=61–72 |url=https://ps.mnhn.lu/ferrantia/publications/Ferrantia59.pdf#page=62}}

A second species, P. pelagicus, was named by Dirk Fuchs and colleagues in 2008 for an alleged gladius vestige from the Vallecillo lagerstätte of Mexico.{{cite journal |last1=Fuchs |first1=D. |last2=Ifrim |first2=C. |last3=Stinnesbeck |first3=W. |date=2008 |title=A new Palaeoctopus (Cephalopoda: Coleoidea) from the Late Cretaceous of Vallecillo, north-eastern Mexico, and implications for the evolution of Octopoda |journal=Palaeontology |volume=51 |issue=5 |pages=1129–1139 |doi=10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00797.x |bibcode=2008Palgy..51.1129F |doi-access=free }} It was subsequently revealed to be a gular plate from a coelacanth, possibly a juvenile Megalocoelacanthus.{{cite journal |last1=Schultze |first1=H.-P. |last2=Fuchs |first2=D. |last3=Giersch |first3=S. |last4=Ifrim |first4=C. |last5=Stinnesbeck |first5=W. |date=2010 |title=Palaeoctopus pelagicus from the Turonian of Mexico reinterpreted as a coelacanth (sarcopterygian) gular plate |journal=Palaeontology |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=689–694 |doi=10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00943.x |bibcode=2010Palgy..53..689S |doi-access=free }}

File:palaeoctopus.jpg]]

References

Category:Octopuses

Category:Monotypic prehistoric cephalopod genera

Category:Fossil taxa described in 1896