Specimen image via iDigBio · BY
Pleurotomariidae
Sign in to savePleurotomariidae, common name the "slit snails", is a family of large marine gastropods in the superfamily Pleurotomarioidea of the subclass Vetigastropoda. This family is a very ancient lineage; there were numerous species in the geological past. The genus includes several hundred fossil forms, mostly Paleozoic. It is one of the oldest gastropod families, commencing in the Cambrian.
Species
slit shells
FAMILY
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumMollusca
- ClassGastropoda
- OrderPleurotomariida
- FamilyPleurotomariidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 217
- With media
- 26
- Family
- Pleurotomariidae
- Collections
- NHMUK, SIO, YPM, NMMNHS, KU, USNM
- Recorded in
- United Kingdom, United States, Saudi Arabia, France, Sint Eustatius, Germany, Nouvelle-Caledonie, Bahamas
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Description
- Fossil record
- Ecology
- Genera
- References
Pleurotomariidae, common name the "slit snails", is a family of large marine gastropods in the superfamily Pleurotomarioidea of the subclass Vetigastropoda. This family is a very ancient lineage; there were numerous species in the geological past. The genus includes several hundred fossil forms, mostly Paleozoic. It is one of the oldest gastropod families, commencing in the Cambrian.
The superfamily is currently represented by a group of species that live only in deep water. This family has no subfamilies.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Pleurotomariidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.