Kingdom Animalia Superfamily Cypraeoidea Rank Family | Class Gastropoda Phylum Mollusca | |
Similar Ovulidae, Primovula, Ovula, Phenacovolva, Simnia | ||
Eocypraeidae is a small family of large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Cypraeoidea, the cowries and cowry allies.
Contents
The family Eocypraeidae consists mainly of fossil species, except for two species: Sphaerocypraea incomparabilis Briano, 1993 (regarded as valid) and an as yet undescribed species found in the southern Atlantic.
In 1963, a fresh shell of what was subsequently named Sphaerocypraea incomparabilis was dredged up by a Soviet trawler in the Gulf of Aden. There are currently (2009) only six known specimens of this shell in various collections.
2005 taxonomy
According to the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi (2005) this family belonged to the tribe Eocypraeini in the subfamily Ovulinae within the family Ovulidae.
2007 taxonomy
Fehse (2007) has raised the tribe Eocypraeini to the status of the family Eocypraeidae, based on morphological research of the radulae, shell and animal morphology and molecular phylogeny research of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene.
Genera
Genera within the family Eocypraeidae include: