Fossariidae

Taxobox
name = Fossariidae


image_caption =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Mollusca
classis = Gastropoda
ordo = Mesogastropoda
familia = Fossariidae
familia_authority =
subdivision_ranks = Genera
subdivision = See text.

Fossariidae are a family of small sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the order Mesogastropoda.

Description

The shells are of varying shape, some elongated, rissoid-like, others turbinate, with rapidly enlarging whorls. The sculpture varies from smooth to strongly spirally ridged. The aperture is entire, with the inner lip separated from the body whorl by a cleft, in the tall narrow forms, but widely umbilicated in turbinate shells. The central tooth of the radula has a large middle cusp flanked by small denticles, lateral similarly toothed but transversely elongated, with a long handle-like base, and the paired marginals are long, narrow, curved and finely dentate.

Genera within the family Fossariidae

* "Chilkaia"
* "Fossarus"
* "Macromphalus"
* "Nilsia" Finlay, 1927
* "Sculpifer" Beu and Climo, 1974
* "Zeradina"

*

References

* Powell A. W. B., "New Zealand Mollusca", William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979 ISBN 0-00-216906-1
* [http://data.gbif.org/species/browse/taxon/17454041 GBIF]