Bigfin squid

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The bigfin squids are a group of rarely seen cephalopods with a distinctive morphology. They are placed in the genus Magnapinna and family Magnapinnidae. The family is known only from larval, paralarval, and juvenile specimens, but some authorities believe the adult creature has been seen: several videos have been taken of animals nicknamed the "long-arm squid", which appear to have a similar morphology. Since none of the adult specimens have ever been captured or sampled, it remains uncertain if they are the same genus, or only distant relatives.

The first record of this family comes from a specimen (Magnapinna talismani) caught off the Azores in 1907. However, due to the damaged nature of the find, very little information could be discerned and it was lumped in with the mastigoteuthids, first as Chiroteuthopsis talismani and later as Mastigoteuthis talismani. In 1956 a similar squid (Magnapinna sp. C) was caught in the South Atlantic, but little was thought of it at the time. The specimen was illustrated in Alister Hardy's The Open Sea (1956), where it was identified as Octopodoteuthopsis.

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