Batillariidae, common name batillariids or mudcreepers, are a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of marine,

cerithioidea The Cerithioidea is a Taxonomic rank, superfamily of marine, brackish water and freshwater Gastropoda, gastropod containing more than 200 genera. The Cerithioidea are included unassigned in the subclass Caenogastropoda. The original name of this ...

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusc Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

s in thesuperfamily

Cerithioidea The Cerithioidea is a Taxonomic rank, superfamily of marine, brackish water and freshwater Gastropoda, gastropod containing more than 200 genera. The Cerithioidea are included unassigned in the subclass Caenogastropoda. The original name of this ...

. They consist of 14 living species, classified in six to eight genera.Ozawa, T., Köhler, F., Reid, D.G., Glaubrecht, M. 2009. Tethyan relicts on continental coastlines of the northwestern Pacific Ocean and Australasia: molecular phylogeny and fossil record of batillariid gastropods (Caenogastropoda: Cerithioidea). ''

Zoologica Scripta ''Zoologica Scripta'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal on systematic zoology, published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It was established in 197 ...

'', 38: 503-525. According to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi (2005) the family Batillariidae has no subfamilies. However, a recent molecular study has found that the Batillariidae as traditionally conceived are not monophyletic. The Neotropical genera ''Lampanella'' and ''Rhinocoryne'' are sister to the

Planaxidae Planaxidae, commonly called planaxids or clusterwinks, are a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of small and minute sea snails, pantropical marine (ocean), marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Cerithioidea. They live o ...

. The monophyletic Batillariidae sensu stricto are restricted to the northwestern

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

and

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

. A revised generic classification has been suggested that is consistent with a molecular phylogenetic hypothesis. Accordingly, within the Batillariidae four genera ''

Batillaria ''Batillaria'' is a genus of small salt marsh or mudflat snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Batillariidae, the horn snails. Species Species within the genus ''Batillaria'' include: * '' Batillaria attramentaria'' (G. B. Sowerby I, ...

'', ''

Pyrazus ''Pyrazus'' is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Batillariidae. Pyriazidae is a synonym of Batillariidae and ''Pyrazus'' is the type genus of the Pyriazidae. Species Species within the genus ''Pyrazus'' include: * ' ...

'', '' Velacumantus'' and ''

Zeacumantus ''Zeacumantus'' is a genus of small to medium-sized sea snails or mud snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Batillariidae.Bouchet, P. (2011). Zeacumantus Finlay, 1926. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.ma ...

'' have been recognized. This delimitation of taxa is consistent with a revised definition of the family based on

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

characters.

Ecology and distribution

Batillarids are abundant on sandy mudflats, and sometimes on rocky shores, on continental margins in the warm-temperate to tropical regions of the northwestern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

and the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

Fossil record and biogeography

Batillariids appeared in the Late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

Palaeocene The Paleocene ( ), or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name is a combination of the Ancient Greek ''palai ...

, and the extinct genera '' Pyrazopsis'', '' Vicinocerithium'' and '' Granulolabium'' became diverse in the Tethyan realm before the group disappeared from

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

at the end of the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

. The Batillariidae s. s. reached

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

by the Late

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

, and the genera ''

'', '' Velacumantus'' and ''

'' still survive in this refugium of Tethyan fauna. Two lineages, ''

'' and the extinct '' Tateiwaia'', migrated north to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

in the Early

, to establish the present disjunct distribution of this relictual group in southern

and the Oriental region.

Genera

Genera within the family Batillariidae include:

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

(to be placed in a new family): * '' Lampanella'' Mörch, 1876 * '' Rhinocoryne'' Martens, 1900

Indopacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

(Batillariidae sensu stricto): * ''

'' Benson, 1842 - type genus of the family Batillariidae, synonym: ''Lampania'' Gray, 1847 * ''

'' Montfort, 1810Bandel K. (2006). "Families of the Cerithioidea and related superfamilies (Palaeo-Caenogastropoda; Mollusca) from the Triassic to the Recent characterized by protoconch morphology - including the description of new taxa". ''

Freiberger Forschungshefte The Freiberger or Franches-Montagnes is a Swiss List of horse breeds, breed of horse of draught horse, light draught type. It originates in the cantons of Switzerland, Canton of Canton of Jura, Jura in north-western Switzerland, and is named for ...

'' C 511: 59-138
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* ''

'' Finlay, 1926, synonym: ''Batillariella'' Thiele, 1931 * '' Velacumantus'' Iredale, 1936

Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

: * '' Granulolabium'' Cossmann, 1889 * '' Tiaracerithium'' Sacco, 1895; possibly a synonym of ''Granulolabium'' * '' Vicinocerithium'' E. Wood, 1910 * '' Tateiwaia'' Makiyama, 1936 * '' Pyrazopsis'' Akopjan, 1972

References

{{Authority control Taxa named by Johannes Thiele (zoologist)