Sphincterochilidae is a taxonomic

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 medium-sized air-breathing

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have gastropod shell, shel ...

s, terrestrial

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates is an informal group (previously an order, and before that, a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group inclu ...

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 ...

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

s in the superfamily

Helicoidea Helicoidea is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic Taxonomic rank, superfamily of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the order (taxonomy), order Stylommatophora. Taxonomy 2017 taxonomy and l ...

(according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). In the

fossil record 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 preserved ...

, Sphincterochilidae are known from the upper

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

to the

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

."Family summary for Sphincterochilidae"

AnimalBase AnimalBase is a project brought to life in 2004 and is maintained by the University of Göttingen, Germany. The goal of the AnimalBase project is to digitize early zoological literature, provide copyright-free open access to zoological works, and p ...

, last modified 27 August 2005, accessed 10 April 2009.

Distribution

The distribution of Sphincterochilidae includes the western-

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...

zone.Hausdorf B. (2000). "Biogeography of the Limacoidea sensu lato (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora): Vicariance Events and Long-Distance Dispersal". '' Journal of Biogeography'' 27(2): 379-390.
JSTOR

Taxonomy

The following two

subfamilies In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zool ...

have been recognized in the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi (2005): * subfamily Sphincterochilinae Zilch, 1960 (1910) - synonyms: Calcarinidae Pallary, 1909 (inv.); Albeidae Pallary, 1910. Sphincterochilidae is a

conserved name A conserved name or ''nomen conservandum'' (plural ''nomina conservanda'', abbreviated as ''nom. cons.'') is a scientific name that has specific nomenclatural protection. That is, the name is retained, even though it violates one or more rules wh ...

to take the priority of Leucochroidae Westerlund, 1886. * subfamily † Pseudoleptaxinae H. Nordsieck, 1986

Genera

Genera within the family Sphincterochilidae include: Sphincterochilinae * † '' Asensidea'' Calzada, 2003 * '' Sphincterochila'' Ancey, 1887 - type genus of the family Sphincterochilidae † Pseudoleptaxinae * † '' Dentellocaracolus'' Oppenheim, 1890 * † '' Fridolinia'' Pilsbry, 1895 † * † '' Pseudoleptaxis'' Pilsbry, 1895Tryon G. W. & Pilsbry H. A. (1894). '' Manual of Conchology'' (2)9
294
- type genus o the subfamily Pseudoleptaxinae * † '' Wenzia'' Pfeffer, 1930

Ecology

Sphincterochilidae land snails are xerothermophilous, i.e. they are well adapted to hot, arid places.

References

* Bank, R. A. (2017). Classification of the Recent terrestrial Gastropoda of the World. Last update: July 16, 2017. {{Taxonbar, from=Q15727507