Coleoidea

Coleoidea Temporal range: Devonian or Carboniferous –Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
A cuttlefish
A common octopus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Cephalopoda
Clade:	Neocephalopoda
Subclass:	Coleoidea Bather, 1888
Divisions
†Belemnoidea Neocoleoidea (most living cephalopods)

Coleoidea^[1][2] or Dibranchiata is one of the two subclasses of cephalopods containing all the various taxa popularly thought of as "soft-bodied" or "shell-less" (i.e. octopus, squid and cuttlefish). Unlike its extant sister group Nautiloidea, whose members have a rigid outer shell for protection, the coleoids have at most an internal shell called cuttlebone or gladius that is used for buoyancy or as muscle anchorage. Some species, notably incirrate octopuses, have lost their internal shell altogether, while in some it has been replaced by a chitinous support structure. A unique trait of the group is the ability to edit their own RNA.^[3]

The major divisions of Coleoidea are based upon the number of arms or tentacles and their structure. The extinct and most primitive form, the Belemnoidea, presumably had ten equally-sized arms in five pairs numbered dorsal to ventral as I, II, III, IV and V. More modern species either modified or lost a pair of arms. The superorder Decapodiformes has arm pair IV modified into long tentacles with suckers generally only on the club-shaped distal end. Superorder Octopodiformes has modifications to arm pair II; it is significantly reduced and used only as a sensory filament in the Vampyromorphida, while Octopoda species have totally lost that arm pair. The inner surface of the suckers (acetabulum) are reinforced with rigid sucker rings which are smooth in Sepiolida, have blunt teeth in Sepiida and sharply pointed teeth in Loliginidae and Oegopsida. The arms and/or tentacles of some oegopsid families have also evolved claw-like hooks.^[4]