Proteroctopus is an extinct genus of cephalopod that lived in the Middle Jurassic, approximately 164 million years ago.

The single fossil specimen assigned to this species originates from the Lower Callovian of Voulte-sur-Rhône in France.

[1] While originally interpreted as an early octopus, a 2016 restudy of the specimen considered it to be a basal member of the Vampyropoda, less closely related to octopus or vampire squid than either of the two groups are to each other.

al indicates that Proteroctopus may be more closely related to the Vampyromorpha based on its unique morphology: two fins, head fused to the body, eight arms, two rows of oblique sucker, a gladius and absence of an ink sac.

[2] A 2022 phylogenetic analysis also found it to be more closely related to vampire squid than to octopuses.