Cerionidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

of air-breathing land snails,

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

pulmonate 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 superfamily

Urocoptoidea Urocoptoidea is a superfamily of land snails, gastropods in the suborder Helicina. MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Urocoptoidea Pilsbry, 1898 (1868). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphi ...

Pre-2008 taxonomy

According to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005), the family Cerionidae is classified in the superfamily

Orthalicoidea The Orthalicoidea are a superfamily of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial gastropod mollusks in the infraorder Orthalicoidei of the suborder HelicinaMolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Simpulopsidae Schileyko, 1999. Accessed through: ...

, within the informal group

Sigmurethra Sigmurethra is a taxonomic category of air-breathing land snails and slugs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. This is an informal group which includes most land snails and slugs. The two strong synapomorphies of Sigmurethra are a long p ...

, itself belonging to the clade

Stylommatophora Stylommatophora is an orderPhilippe Bouchet, Jean-Pierre Rocroi, Bernhard Hausdorf, Andrzej Kaim, Yasunori Kano, Alexander Nützel, Pavel Parkhaev, Michael Schrödl and Ellen E. Strong. 2017. Revised Classification, Nomenclator and Typification ...

within the clade

Eupulmonata Eupulmonata is a taxonomic clade of air-breathing snails. The great majority of this group are land snails and slugs, but some are marine and some are saltmarsh snails that can tolerate salty conditions. Linnean taxonomy *Suborder Eupulmonata H ...

. The family Cerionidae has no subfamilies.

2008 taxonomy

Uit de Weerd (2008) moved the Cerionidae to the newly established superfamily

based on

molecular phylogeny Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

research.Uit de Weerd D. R. (2008). "Delimitation and phylogenetics of the highly diverse land snail family Urocoptidae (Gastropoda, Pulmonata) based on 28S rRNA sequence data: A reunion with ''Cerion''". ''

Journal of Molluscan Studies The ''Journal of Molluscan Studies'' is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Malacological Society of London, covering research in malacology.

'' 74: 317–329. .

Fossil record

The oldest fossil cerionid is '' C. acherontis'' from the Upper Cretaceous

Hell Creek Formation The Hell Creek Formation is an intensively studied division of mostly Upper Cretaceous and some lower Paleocene rocks in North America, named for exposures studied along Hell Creek, near Jordan, Montana. The formation stretches over portions of ...

, in Montana, northwestern USA.Roth, B. & Hartman, J.H. 1998. A probable Cerion (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) from Uppermost Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation, Garfield County, Montana. ''PaleoBios'' 18: 16–20. The second oldest record is the genus ''

Brasilennea ''Brasilennea'' is a fossil genus of small to medium-sized air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropods in the family Cerionidae. The genus is known only from the Brazilian Paleocene Itaboraí Basin, in Rio de Janeiro.Salvador, ...

'' from the Brazilian

Paleocene 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 ''pal ...

Itaboraí Basin Itaboraí (, ) is a city in the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, that belongs to the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area. It was founded in 1672. In 2020, it had a population of 242,543. Location Culturally, its closest municipalities are São ...

, in Rio de Janeiro.Salvador, R.B.; Rowson, B.; Simone, L.R.L. 2011. Rewriting the fossil history of Cerionidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata): new family assignment of the Brazilian Palaeocene genus ''Brasilennea'' Maury, 1935. ''Journal of Molluscan Studies'' 77: 445–447.

Genera

Genera within the Cerionidae include: * ''

'' Maury, 1935Maury, C.J. 1935. New genera and new species of fossil terrestrial Mollusca from Brazil. ''American Museum Novitates'' 764: 1–15. * '' Cerion'' Röding, 1798 - the type genus of the family Cerionidae * '' Mexistrophia'' Thompson, 2011Thompson, F.G. 2011. ''Mexistrophia'', a new genus of Cerionidae from Mexico (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Urocoptoidea). ''Nautilus'' 125(4): 182–192.

References

External links

* Gastropod families {{Cerionidae-stub