Dorateuthis Temporal range: Late Santonian
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Holotype of Dorateuthis syriaca, photographed under μXRF overlay (top) and as in life (bottom) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Cephalopoda |
Family: | †Plesioteuthididae |
Genus: | †Dorateuthis Woodward, 1883 |
Species: | †D. syriaca
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Binomial name | |
†Dorateuthis syriaca Woodward, 1883
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Dorateuthis is a genus of cephalopod from the Upper Santonian shale of Late Cretaceous Lebanon. Though traditionally regarded as a plesioteuthidid squid, it may instead be a member of the suborder Prototeuthina, the earliest-diverging branch of Octopoda. Dorateuthis was small, with a mantle length of 5–40 cm (2.0–15.7 in). The contents of its digestive system suggest that it may have fed on small fishes and been an active predator.