Phylogenetic relationships among the family Ommastrephidae (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) inferred from two mitochondrial DNA gene sequences

Squids of the family Ommastrephidae are distributed worldwide, and the family includes many species of commercial importance. To investigate phylogenetic relationships among squid species of the family Ommastrephidae, partial nucleotide sequences of two mitochondrial gene loci (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I [1277bp] and 16S rRNA [443bp]) of 15 ommastrephid species and two outgroup species from the families Loliginidae and Enoploteuthidae were determined and used to construct parsimony and distance based phylogenetic trees. The molecular data provided several new phylogenetic inferences. The monophyletic status of three subfamilies (Illicinae, Todarodinae and Ommastrephinae) was well supported, although phylogenetic relationships between the subfamilies were not resolved. Inclusion of a problematic species, Ornithoteuthis volatilis, to Todarodinae was indicated. Within Todarodinae, the Japanese common squid Todarodes pacificus was observed to have much closer relationship to the species of the genus Nototodarus than to its congener (Todarodes filippovae). These results indicate that re-evaluation of several morphological key characters for ommastrephid taxonomy may be necessary.