Pyramidellidae
Family of sea snails / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Pyramidellidae, common name the pyram family, or pyramid shells, is a voluminous taxonomic family of mostly small and minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine heterobranch gastropod molluscs. The great majority of species of pyrams are micromolluscs.
Pyramidellidae | |
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Live Turbonilla acutissima | |
Apertural view of a shell of Pyramidella acus | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
Subclass: | Heterobranchia |
Superfamily: | Pyramidelloidea |
Family: | Pyramidellidae J. E. Gray, 1840[1] |
Type genus | |
Pyramidella Lamarck, 1799 | |
Synonyms | |
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The pyram family is distributed worldwide with more than 6,000 named species in more than 350 nominal genera and subgenera.[2]
This family of micromollusks has been little studied and the phylogenetic relationships within the family are not well worked out. There is an absence of a general consensus regarding which species belong to a specific genus or subgenus, contributing to much confusion. Schander (1999) names more than 300 supraspecific names.[3] As there has been no serious generic revision of the genera worldwide, generic polyphyly can be expected to be rampant throughout the family. However, the family itself is deemed monophyletic.[4] However a study in 2011 seems to indicate that this family is deeply nested within the Pulmonata instead of the Heterobranchia.[5]
The family is currently divided into 11 subfamilies (Ponder & Lindberg 1997).[6] An alternative interpretation is that the family Pyramidellidae is but one of six families within the superfamily Pyramidelloidea (Schander, van Aartsen & Corgan 1999).[7] Many species are rare or infrequently recorded.