Cypraeoidea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cypraeoidea | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cypraea chinensis with mantle fully extended
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Families | ||||||||||||||||||
Cypraeoidea, the cowries and cowry allies, is a taxonomic superfamily of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the suborder Hypsogastropoda.
This superfamily contains the families Cypraeidae and Ovulidae.
[edit] Shell description
These two families have adult shells which do not look like typical gastropod shells, they are often smooth and rounded in shape, whether globular or elongate.
The shells of almost every species in this superfamily are very smooth and shiny, and this is because in the living animal, the shell is nearly always fully covered with the mantle.
Usually no spire is visible in the fully adult shell, and there is a long, very narrow, aperture.
The snails in these families have no operculum.
Wikispecies has information related to:
