The first visual record of the long-arm squid dates back to September 1988. A was described as Magnapinna atlantica in 2006. Of particular interest was the very large fin size, up to 90% of the mantle length, that was responsible for the animals' common name.Ī single specimen of a fifth species, Magnapinna sp. Researchers Michael Vecchione and Richard Young were the chief investigators of the finds, and eventually linked them up to the two previous specimens, erecting the family Magnapinnidae in 1998, with Magnapinna pacifica as the type species. A), and three more were found in the Pacific ( Magnapinna pacifica). ĭuring the 1980s, two additional mature specimens were found in the Atlantic ( Magnapinna sp. The specimen was illustrated in Alister Hardy's The Open Sea (1956), where it was identified as Octopodoteuthopsis.

C) was caught in the South Atlantic, but little was thought of it at the time. In 1956, a similar squid ( Magnapinna sp. However, due to the damaged nature of the find, very little information could be discerned and it was classified as a mastigoteuthid, first as Chiroteuthopsis talismani and later as Mastigoteuthis talismani. The first record of this family comes from a specimen ( Magnapinna talismani) caught off the Azores in 1907. Since none of the seemingly adult specimens have ever been captured or sampled, it remains uncertain if they are of the same genus or only distant relatives. Several videos have been taken of animals nicknamed the ' long-arm squid', which appear to have a similar morphology. Although the family is known only from larval, paralarval, and juvenile specimens, some authorities believe adult specimens have also been seen.

They are placed in the genus Magnapinna and family Magnapinnidae. Bigfin squids are a group of rarely seen cephalopods with a distinctive morphology.

Magnapinna squids