Muricoidea

Muricoidea Temporal range: Cretaceous to Recent
Murex pecten
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Subclass:	Caenogastropoda
Order:	Neogastropoda
Superfamily:	Muricoidea Rafinesque, 1815
Families
See text
Synonyms
Muricacea (suffix -oidea mandatory for a superfamily name following current ICZN art. 29.2.)

Muricoidea is a taxonomic superfamily of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Neogastropoda.

This superfamily includes the murex snails, the dove snails, the harp snails, and others.

Shell description

The shell of the snails in this superfamily vary greatly in shape and degree of ornamentation. The shells have an oval aperture, and a noticeable siphonal canal.

Families

Families within the superfamily Muricoidea are as follows:

• family Babyloniidae Kuroda, Habe & Oyama, 1971 -- 2 current genera
• family Costellariidae MacDonald, 1860 -- 11 genera
• family Harpidae Bronn, 1849 -- 4 genera
• family Muricidae Rafinesque, 1815 -- 159 genera
• family Pholidotomidae Cossmann, 1896 †
• family Pleioptygmatidae Quinn, 1989 -- 1 genus
• family Strepsiduridae Cossmann, 1901 -- 1 genus
• family Turbinellidae Swainson, 1835 -- 14 genera

• family Volutomitridae Gray, 1854 -- 7 genera

• 
  Zemiropsis papillaris, Babyloniidae
• 
  Vexillum ornatum, Costellariidae

References

• Bouchet, Philippe & Jean-Pierre Rocroi 2005. Classification and Nomenclator of Gastropod Families. Malacologia 47(1-2): 1-397.
• Ponder, WF & DR Lindberg 1997. Towards a phylogeny of gastropod molluscs: an analysis using morphological characters. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 119(2): 83-265.

Wikispecies has information related to Muricoidea.

This Caenogastropoda-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

• v
• t
• e