Kingdom Animalia Scientific name Trimusculidae Rank Family | Class Gastropoda Phylum Mollusca | |
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Superfamily Trimusculoidea
J. Q. Burch, 1945 (1840) Genus Trimusculus
F. C. Schmidt, 1818 Similar Amphiboloidea, Glacidorbidae, Onchidiidae, Systellommatophora, Siphonariidae | ||
Trimusculus is a genus of medium-sized air-breathing sea snails or false limpets, marine pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the family Trimusculidae.
Contents
Trimusculus is the only genus in the family Trimusculidae. Trimusculidae, the button snails, is the only family in the superfamily Trimusculoidea, a superfamily of false limpets. These are marine pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the clade Eupulmonata.
Trimusculids are not very closely related to the siphonariids, another family of marine air-breathing false-limpets. The trimusculids are in the clade Eupulmonata, and are quite closely related to air-breathing land snails.
Description
Trimusculids are sometimes known as "button shells" or "button snails" because, especially in the eastern Pacific species Trimusculus reticulatus, the shells are small, white, almost perfectly circular in outline, only moderately elevated, and thus the shells are somewhat reminiscent of traditional white shirt buttons.
Species
Species within the genus Trimusculus include: