Octopoda
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(äk′täp·ə·də)
(invertebrate zoology) An order of the dibranchiate cephalopods, characterized by having eight arms equipped with one to three rows of suckers.
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Octopoda
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An order of the class Cephalopoda (subclass Coleoidea), characterized by eight appendages that encircle the mouth, a saclike body, and an internal shell that is much modified or reduced from that of its ancestors. One or two rows of suckers without chitinous rings occur along the eight highly flexible contractile arms. The approximately 200 species of octopods include shallow-water forms like the common octopus, Octopus vulgaris; open-ocean species like the paper argonaut, Argonauta argo; and deep-sea forms with fins like the flapjack devilfish, Opisthoteuthis californica. Two suborders divide the Octopoda into those with paddle-shaped fins on the body and tendrillike cirri on the arms (Cirrata) and those without fins or cirri (Incirrata). See also Cephalopoda; Coleoidea.
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Octopoda
IN BRIEF: n. - An order of eight-armed cephalopod mollusks.
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McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Dictionary
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Encyclopedia
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Mentioned in
Cirromorpha
(invertebrate zoology)
Incirrata
(invertebrate zoology)
Octopodidae
(invertebrate zoology)
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