Cirrina is a suborder of Octopoda, being one of the two main divisions of octopuses. Unfortunately, it is also a wastebasket taxon, being a place to dump any octopus with a small internal shell, pairs of hair-like cirri on each sucker, and two fins on their head. DNA testing has shown this grouping to be paraphyletic, with the genera of Opisthoteuthidae and Cirroctopodidae belonging to a different clade than Cirroteuthidae and Stauroteuthidae.

Many of these octopuses are known from only a few species, and many of these species were discovered long before DNA sequencing -- or DNA -- were known. Eventually this will be sorted out, at which point the term 'Cirrina' will either be retired or repurposed.

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