Groves, Lindsey;Squires, Richard L.
Cypraeidae
Sign in to saveAlso known as cowries
Cypraeidae, commonly named the cowries ( cowry or cowrie), is a taxonomic family of small to large sea snails. These are marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cypraeoidea, the cowries and cowry allies.
Species
cowries
FAMILY
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumMollusca
- ClassGastropoda
- OrderLittorinimorpha
- FamilyCypraeidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 3,122
- With media
- 244
- Family
- Cypraeidae
- Collections
- PRI, LACM, YPM, UCMP, NHMUK, SDNHM
- Recorded in
- Philippines, United States, Egypt, Madagascar, Australia, Mexico, Oman
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
10 sectionsContents
- Shell description
- Distribution
- Predators and prey
- Taxonomy
- 2005 taxonomy
- Genera
- Species
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Cypraeidae, commonly named the cowries ( cowry or cowrie), is a taxonomic family of small to large sea snails. These are marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cypraeoidea, the cowries and cowry allies.
==Shell description== Cypraeidae have adult shells which are very rounded, almost like an egg; they do not look like a typical gastropod shell. Their glossy, polished, ovate-shaped shells have beautiful patterns in a variety of colors. These patterns, combined with minor variations in shell form, have led some conchologists to recognize 60 genera and hundreds of species and subspecies.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Cypraeidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.