| Velainellidae Temporal range: Eocene |
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|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Order: | Vetigastropoda |
| Superfamily: | Trochoidea |
| Family: | Velainellidae Vasseur, 1880 |
Velainellidae is a very small family of gastropods containing only the Eocene genus Velainella, named by Vasseur 1880 and found in France. Velainella has a long, narrow, straight twisted shell with a smooth lipped oval aperture. The last whorl is twisted into a slender spiral, simulating a mutlispiral shell but without the spiral septum.
Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005 included the Velainellidae in the vetigastropod superfamily Trochoidea, leaving the rank of the Vetigastropoda undecided. Previously W. F. Ponder and A. Warén 1988 put the Velainellidae in the Loxonematoidea (Koken 1889) a superfamily in the Mesogastropoda, Earlier, J. B. Knight, et al, 1960 in the Treatise included the Velainellidae, with Vellainella, in the Trochacea, as does Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005, but in the Archaeogastropoda. Trochacea is the original form for what has been changed to Trochoidea.