''Cinctura'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of fasciolariid

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 known as the banded tulip shells. Species in this genus were previously grouped in the closely related genus ''

Fasciolaria Tulip snail or tulip shell is the common name for eight species of large, predatory, subtropical and tropical sea snails from the Western Atlantic. These species are in the genus ''Fasciolaria''. They are marine gastropod mollusks in the family ...

''.

Taxonomy

''Cinctura'' was originally proposed as a subgenus of ''Fasciolaria'' in 1957 by Solomon Cady Hollister. It was raised to the rank of genus by Snyder et al. in 2012. ''Cinctura'' are known as "banded tulip shells"

Species

Species within the genus ''Cinctura'' include: * '' Cinctura branhamae'' (Rehder & Abbott, 1951) * '' Cinctura hunteria'' (Perry, 1811) * '' Cinctura lilium'' (Fischer von Waldheim, 1807)

Identification

''Cinctura'' differ from the closely related ''Fasciolaria'' in bearing a prominent parietal ridge within the aperture of the shell and in lacking an inflected sutural ramp.

Evolution

''Cinctura'' is closely related to ''

''. The earliest known fossils of ''Cinctura'' date to the

Piacenzian The Piacenzian is in the international geologic time scale the upper stage (stratigraphy), stage or latest age (geology), age of the Pliocene. It spans the time between 3.6 ± 0.005 year#SI prefix multipliers, Ma and 2.58 Ma (million years ago). T ...

age of the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Fasciolariidae {{Fasciolariidae-stub