Volutoidea is a taxonomic

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

predatory Predation is a biological interaction where 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 t ...

sea snails, marine gastropod

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is es ...

s in the clade Neogastropoda.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Volutoidea Rafinesque, 1815. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1055738 on 2020-06-05 This superfamily includes the chank snails, the dove snails, the volutes, the margin snails and others.

Shell description

The

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 ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

of the snails in this superfamily vary greatly in shape and degree of ornamentation. The shells have an oval

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An ...

, and a noticeable

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 ...

Families

Families within the superfamily Volutoidea are as follows: * family

Cancellariidae Cancellariidae, common name the nutmeg snails or nutmeg shells, are a family of small to medium-large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Neogastropoda. Some of the shells of the species in this family resemble a nutmeg seed. ...

Forbes & Hanley, 1851 * family Cystiscidae Stimpson, 1865 -- 15 genera * family Granulinidae G. A. Coovert & H. K. Coovert, 1995 * family Marginellidae Fleming, 1828 -- 30 genera * family Marginellonidae Coan, 1965 * family

Volutidae ''Volutidae'', common name volutes, are a taxonomic family of predatory sea snails that range in size from 9 mm to over 500 mm. They are marine gastropod mollusks. Most of the species have no operculum. Distribution This family of sea snai ...

Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; October 22, 1783September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimat ...

, 1815 -- 49 genera ;Synonyms: * Paladmetidae Stephenson, 1941 † synonym of Admetinae Troschel, 1865 * Plesiocystiscidae G. A. Coovert & H. K. Coovert, 1995: synonym of '' Plesiocystiscinae'' G. A. Coovert & H. K. Coovert, 1995 Image:Persicula cingulata 01.JPG, '' Persicula cingulata'', Cystiscidae Image:Marginella glabella 01.JPG, '' Marginella glabella'', Marginellidae Image:Cymbiola nobilis 01.jpg, '' Cymbiola nobilis'',

References

* 1997. Towards a phylogeny of gastropod molluscs: an analysis using morphological characters. ''Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 119(2)'': 83-265. * (2017). Revised classification, nomenclator and typification of gastropod and monoplacophoran families. Malacologia. 61(1-2): 1-526. Neogastropoda Extant Cretaceous first appearances Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque {{Caenogastropoda-stub