Higher Classification: > Kingdom Animalia > Subkingdom Eumetazoa > Phylum Mollusca > Class Cephalopoda > Subclass Coleoidea > Superorder Decapodiformes > Order Spirulida > Superfamily Spiruloidea > Family Spirulidae > Genus Spirula

Spirula spirula (Linnaeus, 1758)

Rank: Species
Taxon Status: accepted

Original genus

Nautilus Linnaeus, 1758

Relationships towards this taxon

Genus group names

*Spirula*	Lamarck, 1799	accepted genus name
*Spirulea*	[sic]	orthographic variant
*Lituus*	Gray, 1847	synonym

Species group names

*Lituus laevis*	Gray, 1849	synonym
*Spirula australis*	Lamarck, 1816	synonym
*Spirula blakei*	Lönnberg, 1896	synonym
*Spirula peronii*	Lamarck, 1822	synonym
*Spirula reticulata*	Owen, 1848	synonym
*Spirulea prototypos*	F. Péron & Lesueur, 1807	synonym

Vernaculars (+) (-)

Dutch: posthoreninktvis sources: Hayward, P.; Nelson-Smith, A.; Shields, C. (1999). Gids van kust en strand: flora en fauna [Coast and beach guide: flora and fauna]. Tirion: Baarn, Netherlands. ISBN 90-5210-327-5. 352, ill. pp.

English: common spirula; ram's horn; ram's horn shell; ram's horn squid sources: Cole, T. C. H. (2017). Wörterbuch der Wirbellosen / Dictionary of Invertebrates. Latein-Deutsch-English. 2017. Springer Spektrum: Berlin. ISBN 978-3-662-52869-3. XII, 574 pp.;van der Land, J. (ed). (2008). UNESCO-IOC Register of Marine Organisms (URMO).;Branch, G. M. (2002). Two Oceans. 5th impression. David Philip, Cate Town & Johannesburg.;Jereb, P.; Roper, C. F. E. (2005). An annotated an illustrated catalogue of cephalopod species known to date. Volume 1: Chambered nautilusses and sepioids (Nautilidae, Sepiidae, Sepiolidae, Sepiadariidae, Idiosepiidae and Spirulidae). FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes. 4(1). FAO, Rome. 262p., 9 colour plates.

French: spirule sources: Jereb, P.; Roper, C. F. E. (2005). An annotated an illustrated catalogue of cephalopod species known to date. Volume 1: Chambered nautilusses and sepioids (Nautilidae, Sepiidae, Sepiolidae, Sepiadariidae, Idiosepiidae and Spirulidae). FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes. 4(1). FAO, Rome. 262p., 9 colour plates.

German: Posthörnchen sources: Cole, T. C. H. (2017). Wörterbuch der Wirbellosen / Dictionary of Invertebrates. Latein-Deutsch-English. 2017. Springer Spektrum: Berlin. ISBN 978-3-662-52869-3. XII, 574 pp.

Japanese: トグロコウイカ sources: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. (2009 onwards). Biological Information System for Marine Life (BISMaL). Accessed on 2018-11-21.

Spanish, Castillian: espírula

Literature

additional source	Johnson, C. W. (1926). Spirula spirula (Linne). The Nautilus. 39(4): 141-142.
additional source	Thomas, R. F. & Bingham, F. O. (1972). Shell structure in Spirula spirula (Cephalopoda). The Nautilus. 86(2-4): 63-66, figs. 1-8.
additional source	McGinty, T. L. (1955). Spirula spirula Linné, a remarkable find. The Nautilus. 69(1): 35.
additional source	Branch, G. M. (2002). Two Oceans. 5th impression. David Philip, Cate Town & Johannesburg.
additional source	Dautzenberg, P. (1923). Liste préliminaire des mollusques marins de Madagascar et description de deux espèces nouvelles. Journal de Conchyliologie. 68: 21-74.
additional source	Rosenberg, G. 1992. Encyclopedia of Seashells. Dorset: New York. 224 pp.
additional source	Dautzenberg P. (1929). Contribution à l'étude de la faune de Madagascar: Mollusca marina testacea. Faune des colonies françaises. [Contribution to the study of the fauna of Madagascar: Mollusca marina testacea. Fauna of the French colonies.]. Société d'Editions Géographiques, Maritimes et Coloniales. 3(4): 321-636, pls 4-7. Paris.
additional source	Ardovini, R.; Cossignani, T. (2004). West African seashells (including Azores, Madeira and Canary Is.) = Conchiglie dell'Africa Occidentale (incluse Azzorre, Madeira e Canarie). English-Italian edition. L'Informatore Piceno: Ancona, Italy. ISBN 88-86070-11-X. 319 pp.
additional source	Spencer, H.G., Marshall, B.A. & Willan, R.C. (2009). Checklist of New Zealand living Mollusca. Pp 196-219. in: Gordon, D.P. (ed.) New Zealand inventory of biodiversity. Volume one. Kingdom Animalia: Radiata, Lophotrochozoa, Deuterostomia. Canterbury University Press, Christchurch.
additional source	Judkins, H. L., M. Vecchione, and C. F. E. Roper. 2009. Cephalopoda (Mollusca) of the Gulf of Mexico, Pp. 701–709 in Felder, D.L. and D.K. Camp (eds.), Gulf of Mexico–Origins, Waters, and Biota. Biodiversity. Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas.
additional source	Hayward, B. W. (1976). Spirula (Sepioidea:Cephalopoda) from the lower Miocene of Kaipara Harbour, New Zealand (note. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics. 19, 145-147.
additional source	Abbott, R. T. (1974). American seashells. The marine Mollusca of the Atlantic and Pacific coast of North America. ed. 2. Van Nostrand, New York. 663 pp., 24 pls. [October 1974].
additional source	Reid, A. (2005). Family Spirulidae. pp. 211-212, in P. Jereb & C.F.E. Roper eds. Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of cephalopod species known to date. Volume 1. Chambered nautiluses and sepioids (Nautilidae, Sepiidae, Sepiolidae, Sepiadariidae, Idiosepiidae and Spirulidae). FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes [Rome, FAO]. 4(1): 262 pp. 9 pls.
status source	Hoffmann, R.; Weinkauf, M. F. G.; Fuchs, D.; Lukeneder, A. (2021). Is there more than one species in the genus Spirula(Cephalopoda: Decabrachia): evidence for an Atlantic–Pacific divide. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 87(1).

Genbank

Citation

MolluscaBase eds. (2025). MolluscaBase. Spirula spirula (Linnaeus, 1758). Via: Costello, M.J.; Bouchet, P.; Boxshall, G.; Arvantidis, C.; Appeltans, W. (2011) European Register of Marine Species, Accessed through PESI at http://www.eu-nomen.eu/portal/taxon.php?GUID=urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:141548