| Xenophora Temporal range: Late Cretaceous–Recent |
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|---|---|
| The shell of Xenophora pallidula | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Littorinimorpha |
| Superfamily: | Xenophoroidea |
| Family: | Xenophoridae |
| Genus: | Xenophora Fischer von Waldheim, 1807[1] |
| Species | |
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See text. |
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Xenophora, common name carrier shells, is a genus of medium sized to large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Xenophoridae, the carrier snails or carrier shells.
Shells small to large (diameter of base without attachments 19-90 mm; height of shell 21-60 mm), depressed-conical, with narrow to very narrow, simple peripheral edge, non-porcellanous ventrally. Foreign objects attached to all whorls, generally more than 30% of dorsal surface obscured. Objects usually medium-sized to large.[2]
The genus Xenophora includes the following species and subspecies:[2][3][4]