The Bursidae,

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

"frog snails" or "frog shells", are a small

taxonomic 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme of classes (a taxonomy) and the allocation ...

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 large

sea snail Sea snails are slow-moving marine (ocean), marine gastropod Mollusca, molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the Taxonomic classification, taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguishe ...

s, marine

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 ...

predatory Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

snail A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...

s in the clade

Littorinimorpha Littorinimorpha is a large order of snails, gastropods, consisting primarily of sea snails ( marine species), but also including some freshwater snails ( limnic species) and land snails ( terrestrial species).Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (Ed.); Fr� ...

.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Bursidae Thiele, 1925. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=22995 on 2020-08-19

Distribution

Most species in this family occur on rocks or coral reefs in shallow waters of tropical oceans, including the

Indo-Pacific 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 ...

, the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

, and other marginal warm seas, but they are also found in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

and the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

. Only a few are found on sandy bottoms of deeper waters of the continental shelf.

Shell description

The thick, ovate to slightly elongated shells are coarsely sculptured, resembling the triton shells of the

Ranellidae The Ranellidae, common name the triton shells or tritons, are a taxonomic family of small to very large predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the order Littorinimorpha. Distribution The Tritons are principally equatorial in their ...

. The intersection of the spiral ribs and the axial sculpture results in a strong nodulose pattern of more or less round knobs. This warty surface gave them their common name - frog shells. The outer varicose lip is dilated and shows a number of labial plicae, resulting in a toothed lip on the inside. The inner lip is calloused, showing transverse plicae. The anterior and posterior canals are well developed. The

siphonal canal The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water i ...

at the anterior end is usually short. The anal canal at the posterior end is a deep slot. The strong axial

varices A varix (: varices) is an abnormally dilated blood vessel with a tortuous course. Varices usually occur in the venous system, but may also occur in arterial or lymphatic vessels. Examples of varices include: * Varicose veins, large tortuous veins ...

are often in two continuous series per whorl, one down each side of the shell. The nucleus of the corneous operculum is situated either at the anterior end or the mid-inner margin. A

periostracum The periostracum ( ) is a thin, organic coating (or "skin") that is the outermost layer of the shell of many shelled animals, including molluscs and brachiopods. Among molluscs, it is primarily seen in snails and clams, i.e. in gastropods an ...

(hairy covering of the outer shell) is usually absent or thin.

Anatomy

The taenioglossate

radula The radula (; : radulae or radulas) is an anatomical structure used by mollusks for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food enters ...

has seven teeth in each row: one central tooth, flanked on each side by one lateral and two marginal teeth. The central tooth is saddle-shaped, with long basal limbs, each bearing a cusp-like spur upon its face. Their eyes are based at the base of their filiform

tentacle In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work main ...

s. The foot is short and thick. Fertilization is internal. The female snail lays her eggs enclosed in a jelly-like matrix that she sometimes broods with her foot. After hatching, the eggs become free-swimming larvae.

Feeding habits

Frog shells are active

predator Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

s, and appear to feed on bristle worms ( Polychaeta) that they anaesthetize with acidic saliva through their extensible, distally flattened

probosces A proboscis () is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In invertebrates, the term usually refers to tubular mouthparts used for feeding and sucking. In vertebrates, a proboscis is an elongat ...

Genera

Genera in the family Bursidae include: Aquitanobursa tuberosa 001

* ''

Alanbeuella ''Alanbeuella '' is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Bursidae The Bursidae, common name "frog snails" or "frog shells", are a small Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic family (biology), family of large sea snails, mari ...

'' M. T. Sanders, Merle, Laurin, Bonillo & Puillandre, 2020 * ''

Annaperenna ''Annaperenna'' is a genus of sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the family (biology), family Bursidae, the frog shells.MolluscaBase eds. (2023). MolluscaBase. Annaperenna Iredale, 1936. Accessed through: World Register of M ...

'' Iredale, 1936 * †'' Aquitanobursa'' M. T. Sanders, Merle & Puillandre, 2019 * '' Aspa'' H. Adams & A. Adams, 1853 * '' Bufonaria'' Schumacher, 1817 * ''

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

'' Roding, 1798 * '' Bursina'' Oyama 1964 - assigned to Bursidae by Beu in 2005 * '' Colubrellina'' P. Fischer, 1884 * '' Crossata'' Jousseaume, 1881 * '' Dulcerana'' Oyama, 1964 * '' Korrigania'' M. T. Sanders, Merle, Laurin, Bonillo & Puillandre, 2020 * '' Lampasopsis'' Jousseaume, 1881 * '' Marsupina'' Dall, 1904 * † '' Olequahia'' Stewart, 1926 * † '' Olssonia'' M. T. Sanders, Merle & Puillandre, 2019 * ''

Talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

'' de Folin, 1887 * '' Tritonoranella'' Oyama, 1964 * '' Tutufa'' Jousseaume, 1881 ;Genera brought into synonymy: * † ''Bechtelia'' Emerson & Hertlein, 1964: synonym of ''Marsupina'' Dall, 1904 * ''Buffo'' Montfort, 1810: synonym of ''Marsupina'' Dall, 1904 * ''Bufonariella'' Thiele, 1929: synonym of ''Talisman'' de Folin, 1887 * ''Chasmotheca'' Dall, 1904: synonym of ''Bufonaria'' Schumacher, 1817 * ''Columbraria'': synonym of ''Bursa'' Röding, 1798 (incorrect subsequent spelling of ''Colubrellina'' ?) * ''Lampadopsis'' P. Fischer, 1884: synonym of ''Lampasopsis'' Jousseaume, 1881 (unjustified emendation of ''Lampasopsis'' Jousseaume, 1881) * ''Lampas'' Schumacher, 1817: synonym of ''Tutufa (Tutufella)'' Beu, 1981 * ''Pseudobursa'' Rovereto, 1899: synonym of ''Bursa'' Röding, 1798 * ''Tutufella'' Beu, 1981: synonym of ''Tutufa (Tutufella)'' Beu, 1981: represented as ''Tutufa'' Jousseaume, 1881 (Replacement name for ''Lampas'' Schumacher, preoccupied)

References

Footnotes

* Bouchet P. & Rocroi J.-P. (2005) ''Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families''. Malacologia 47(1–2): 1–397.

External links

Beu A.G. 1998. I''ndo-West Pacific Ranellidae, Bursidae and Personidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda). A monograph of the New Caledonian fauna and revisions of related taxa.'' Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle 178: 1-255

Sanders M.T., Merle D., Laurin M., Bonillo C. & Puillandre N. (2021 (nomenclatural availability: 2020) ). Raising names from the dead: a time-calibrated phylogeny of frog shells (Bursidae, Tonnoidea, Gastropoda) using mitogenomic data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 156: 107040: 1-12

{{Taxonbar, from=Q822898 Taxa named by Johannes Thiele (zoologist)