Epitonioidea
Encyclopedia
Epitonioidea is a superfamily
of planktonic and ectoparasitic sea snail
s, marine
gastropod molluscs within the informal group Ptenoglossa
. This superfamily includes the wentletraps and the purple snails.
Taxonomic rank
In biological classification, rank is the level in a taxonomic hierarchy. Examples of taxonomic ranks are species, genus, family, and class. Each rank subsumes under it a number of less general categories...
of planktonic and ectoparasitic sea snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
s, marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
gastropod molluscs within the informal group Ptenoglossa
Ptenoglossa
The Ptenoglossa is an informal taxonomic group of sea snails.It was considered paraphyletic or polyphyletic by Ponder and Lindberg in their classification of the molluscs.-Taxonomy:*Superfamily Epitonioidea**Family Epitoniidae**Family Janthinidae...
. This superfamily includes the wentletraps and the purple snails.
Taxonomy
Families and subfamilies within this superfamily are as follows:- Family Epitoniidae S.S. Berry, 1910, the wentletraps
- Family JanthinidaeJanthinidaeJanthinidae, common name the purple snails or violet snails, are a family of pelagic sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the informal group Ptenoglossa of the clade Hypsogastropoda....
Lamarck, 1822, the purple snails - Family NystiellidaeNystiellidaeNystiellidae is a family of small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks within the superfamily Epitonioidea which includes the wentletraps, the purple snails and their allies. This family was previously considered as a subfamily of Epitoniidae...
ClenchWilliam J. ClenchWilliam James Clench was an American malacologist, professor at Harvard University and curator of the mollusk collection in the malacology department of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard.Clench was born in Brooklyn, but was largely raised in Massachusetts. In 1913 he entered the...
& TurnerRuth TurnerRuth Dixon Turner was a pioneering U.S. marine biologist and malacologist who became the world's expert on Teredinidae or shipworms, a taxonomic family of wood-boring bivalve mollusks which severely damage wooden marine installations....
, 1952