Volutoidea is a

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 ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

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 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 Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

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

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

, 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 i ...

Families

Families within the superfamily Volutoidea are as follows: * family

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

Forbes & Hanley, 1851 * family

Cystiscidae Cystiscidae is a taxonomic family of small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks or micromollusks. Description The shell is minute to large, either white, uniformly colored, or patterned; the surface is smooth, sculptured, or axially costat ...

Stimpson, 1865 -- 15 genera * family

Granulinidae Granulinidae are a family (biology), family of small to medium-large sea snails, marine (ocean), marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Neogastropoda.MolluscaBase eds. (2020). MolluscaBase. Granulinidae G. A. Coovert & H. K. Coovert, 1995. Access ...

G. A. Coovert & H. K. Coovert, 1995 * family

Marginellidae Marginellidae, or the margin shells, are a taxonomic family of small, often colorful, sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the clade Neogastropoda. Taxonomy The higher classification of the family Marginellidae has long been in a state o ...

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 s ...

Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; 22 October 178318 September 1840) was a French early 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, ult ...

, 1815 -- 49 genera ;Synonyms: * Paladmetidae Stephenson, 1941 † synonym of Admetinae Troschel, 1865 * Plesiocystiscidae G. A. Coovert & H. K. Coovert, 1995: synonym of ''

Plesiocystiscinae Plesiocystiscinae is a subfamily of minute sea predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks or micromollusks in the infraorder Neogastropoda. The genus name on which this subfamily name is based is derived from the Greekword ''plesios'', nea ...

'' G. A. Coovert & H. K. Coovert, 1995 Image:Persicula cingulata 01.JPG, ''

Persicula cingulata ''Persicula cingulata'' is a species of very small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk or micromollusk in the family Cystiscidae. Description (Described as ''Marginella vittata'') The shell has a subcylindrical shape and is rather flattened ...

'',

Image:Marginella glabella 01.JPG, '' Marginella glabella'',

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