Trachyteuthis Meyer, 1846

Fuchs, Dirk, Engeser, Theo & Keupp, Helmut, 2007, Gladius shape variation in coleoid cephalopod Trachyteuthis from the Upper Jurassic Nusplingen and Solnhofen Plattenkalks, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 52 (3), pp. 575-589 : 579

Genus Trachyteuthis Meyer, 1846

(= subjective senior synonym of Coccoteuthis Owen, 1855 ; Voltzia Schevill, 1950 )

Type species: Trachyteuthis ensiformis Meyer, 1846 (= junior subjective synonym of Sepia hastiformis Rüppell, 1829 ), Tithonian (Late Jurassic), Solnhofen region, Southern Germany; subsequently designated by Doyle et al. (1994: 11).

Emended diagnosis.—Gladius with hyperbolar zone length/ gladius length ratio of 0.40–0.45. Anterior gladius end more or less arcuated.

Species included.— Trachyteuthis hastiformis ( Rüppell, 1829) ; Tr. latipinnis ( Owen, 1855) ; Tr. zhuravlevi Hecker and Hecker, 1955 ; Tr. palmeri ( Schevill, 1950) ; Tr. nusplingensis sp. nov.; Tr. teudopsiformis sp. nov.

Stratigraphic and geographic range.—As for the family.

Remarks.— Crick (1896) proposed that Trachyteuthis is a junior subjective synonym of Coccoteuthis Owen, 1855 because a full description of Trachyteuthis by Meyer (1855) was slightly after the erection of Coccoteuthis by Owen (1855). Indeed, Meyer (1846: 598) introduced the genus Trachyteuthis without detailed descriptions or illustrations, but the bibliographic reference to pl. 9: 3 in Münster (1846) is valid according to ICZN (art. 12). The majority of workers therefore considered Coccoteuthis to be a junior subjective synonym of Trachyteuthis ( Engeser 1988; Doyle 1991; Doyle et al. 1994; Donovan 1995; Riegraf et al. 1998; Donovan et al. 2003). Voltzia Schevill, 1950 is a junior subjective synonym, too.

Meyer (1846: 598) established two species of Trachyteuthis : Tr. oblonga and Tr. ensiformis . Tr. oblonga has neither a description nor a bibliographic reference and is therefore a nomen nudum ( Engeser 1988). Tr. ensiformis was indicated in form of a bibliographic reference ( Meyer 1846: 598). Tr. ensiformis is therefore available according to ICZN (art. 12). Meyer (1846) did not originally include Sepia hastiformis Rüppell, 1829 in his new genus Trachyteuthis . Many subsequent workers overlooked this fact ( Bülow−Trummer 1920; Engeser 1988) and regarded Sepia hastiformis Rüppell, 1829 as the type species of Trachyteuthis . But Doyle et al. (1994) correctly re−established T. ensiformis as the type species of Trachyteuthis according to art. 67.2 of ICZN (2000).