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Recent bottom trawl surveys in the North Sea have broadened our understanding of an obscure group of bobtail squids (Sepiolidae: Sepiolinae). There are at least two Sepietta species in this region, viz. Sepietta oweniana and Sepietta neglecta, and three Sepiola species, one of which is undescribed, viz. Sepiola atlantica, Sepiola pfefferi and Sepiola sp. nov. Sepiola pfefferi is distinct from Sepiola aurantiaca because of differences in the hectocotylus; the type localities of both species are far apart and data in GenBank indicate a substantial genetic difference between them. It is unclear how to distinguish Sepiola sp. nov. morphologically from its sister species S. atlantica, but molecular phylogenetic analyses and distributional data readily set them apart. The occurrence of Sepiola rondeleti in the northeastern Atlantic could not be confirmed. Several obviously incorrect or dubious identifications regarding GenBank data are listed.
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Groenenberg et al. (2009) studied this question.
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