Abstract
All seven known resident Arctic cephalopods were identified in the collections of the German RV Polarstern (1991, 1993, 1995, 1998) in the waters around Svalbard, northwards from the Kara Sea, in the Laptev and western East Siberian seas: sepia lids Rossia palpebrosa (depths 96–362 m) and R. moelleri (67–101, specimens identified with question mark also at the depths of 38 and 292 m), benthic octopuses Bathypolypus arcticus (180–362 m), Benthoctopus piscatorum (1580–2000 m), and Benthoctopus sibiricus (30m, a juvenile identified with question mark), cirrate octopod Cirroteuthis muelleri (3012–3310 m), and gonatid squid Gonatus fabricii (juveniles: in midwater, 300–500 m, in fish stomachs, 946–990 m). The latter two species are definitely circumpolar and panpolar (inhabiting the whole Polar Basin). The known ranges of R. pulpebrosa, R. moelleri, and B. arcticus are extended from the eastern coasts of Severnaya Zemlya and Vilkitsky Strait to western East Siberian Sea (R. palpebrosa: 150°E) or eastern Laptev Sea (R. moelleri: 130°E, B. arcticus: 135°E), the range of B. piscatorum is extended from West Spitsbergen Island to 91°E. Although gaps still exist in the known distributions of R. palpebrosa. R. moelleri and B. arcticus (these species are considered as West-Arctic or Atlanta-West-Arctic) between the eastern boundaries of their ranges in the Asian Arctic and western boundaries in the Canadian Arctic, there are little doubt that they are in fact circumpolar and widely eurybathic in the western sector of the Arctic but in the eastern sector distributed only at depths > 100–200 m (except R. moelleri: to 67 m). B. piscatorum is known at yet in western Arctic only and may be not circumpolar. Benthoctopus sibiricus is the East-Arctic (definitely not circumpolar) shallow-water benthic octopus having relations with the octopods of northwestern Pacific.
