Decapodiformes is a superorder of Cephalopoda comprising all cephalopod species with ten limbs, specifically eight short arms and two long tentacles. It is hypothesized that the ancestral coleoid had five identical pairs of limbs, and that one branch of descendants evolved a modified arm pair IV to become the Decapodiformes, while another branch of descendants evolved and then eventually lost its arm pair II, becoming the Octopodiformes.
Taxonomy
The following orders are recognised in the superorder Decapodiformes:[3]
Molecular analyses consistently showed that the order Teuthida is invalid as its two constituent subgroups do not form a clade that did not exclude other decapodiform orders. Thus, Teuthida is presently considered an invalid order due to lack of monophyly.[4]
↑Bieler R, Bouchet P, Gofas S, Marshall B, Rosenberg G, La Perna R, Neubauer TA, Sartori AF, Schneider S, Vos C, ter Poorten JJ, Taylor J, Dijkstra H, Finn J, Bank R, Neubert E, Moretzsohn F, Faber M, Houart R, Picton B, Garcia-Alvarez O (eds.). "Teuthida Naef, 1916". MolluscaBase. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 2025-07-24.
↑Uribe, Juan E.; Zardoya, Rafael (3 February 2017). "Revisiting the phylogeny of Cephalopoda using complete mitochondrial genomes". Journal of Molluscan Studies. 83 (2): 133–144. doi:10.1093/mollus/eyw052. hdl:10261/156228.
