List of mollusc orders illustrates the 97 orders in the phylum Mollusca, the largest marine animal phylum. 85,000 extant species are described, [1] making up 23% of described marine organisms. [2]
No orders, 6 families, 15 genera, 150 species.
This overview of orders follows the taxonomy of the Gastropoda (Ponder & Lindberg, 1997):
Subclass Eogastropoda
Subclass Orthogastropoda Ponder & David R. Lindberg, 1996
Superorder Vetigastropoda Salvini-Plawen, 1989 (limpets)
Superorder Neritaemorphi Koken, 1896
Superorder Caenogastropoda Cox, 1960
Superorder Heterobranchia J.E. Gray, 1840
Gastropods, commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda.
Monoplacophora, meaning "bearing one plate", is a polyphyletic superclass of molluscs with a cap-like shell, inhabiting deep sea environments. Extant representatives were not recognized as such until 1952; previously they were known only from the fossil record, and were thought to have become extinct 375 million years ago.
Orthogastropoda was a major taxonomic grouping of snails and slugs, an extremely large subclass within the huge class Gastropoda according to the older taxonomy of the Gastropoda.
Pulmonata or pulmonates is an informal group of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group includes many land and freshwater families, and several marine families.
Caenogastropoda is a taxonomic subclass of molluscs in the class Gastropoda. It is a large diverse group which are mostly sea snails and other marine gastropod mollusks, but also includes some freshwater snails and some land snails. The subclass is the most diverse and ecologically successful of the gastropods.
The Cocculinoidea is a superfamily of deepwater limpets, the only superfamily in the order Cocculinida, one of the main orders of gastropods according to the taxonomy as set up by. The clade Cocciliniformia used to be designated as a superorder.
Neritopsoidea is a taxonomic grouping, a superfamily of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Cycloneritimorpha, within the clade Neritimorpha,, or in the order Neritoina within superorder Cycloneritimorpha within the subclass Neritimorpha,.
Trochoidea is a superfamily of small to very large vetigastropod sea snails with gills and an operculum. Species within this superfamily have nacre as the inner shell layer. The families within this superfamily include the Trochidae, the top snails. This superfamily is the largest vetigastropodan superfamily, containing more than 2,000 species.
Helcionelloida is an extinct group of ancient molluscs. These are the oldest known conchiferan molluscs, that is, they had a mineralised shell. Some members of this class were mistaken for Monoplacophorans. The class was erected by Peel in 1991.
The taxonomy of the Gastropoda, as revised by Winston Ponder and David R. Lindberg in 1997, is an older taxonomy of the class Gastropoda, the class of molluscs consisting of all snails and slugs. The full name of the work in which this taxonomy was published is Towards a phylogeny of gastropod molluscs: an analysis using morphological characters.
Vetigastropoda is a major taxonomic group of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks that form a very ancient lineage. Taxonomically the Vetigastropoda are sometimes treated as an order, although they are treated as an unranked clade in Bouchet and Rocroi, 2005.
Neritimorpha is a clade of gastropod molluscs that contains around 2,000 extant species of sea snails, limpets, freshwater snails, land snails and slugs. This clade used to be known as the superorder Neritopsina.
Coreospiridae is an extinct family of Paleozoic molluscs of uncertain position taxonomically. They might be snails (Gastropoda), Helcionelloida, or they might be Monoplacophora.
Cycloneritida is an order of land snails, freshwater snails, and sea snails.
Seguenzioidea is a superfamily of minute to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Vetigastropoda.
Khairkhaniidae is an extinct family of Paleozoic fossil molluscs of uncertain position. They are thought to belong to either the Gastropoda or Monoplacophora. They possess planispiral coiled shells with a columnar microstructure.
Yochelcionelloidea is an extinct superfamily of paleozoic molluscs of uncertain position. The earliest yochelcionellids are known from the Middle Tommotian, but they are most diverse from the Botomian through the early Middle Cambrian.
Euomphaloidea, originally Euomphalacea, is an extinct superfamily of marine molluscs that lived from the Early Ordovician to the Late Cretaceous, included in the Gastropoda but speculated as instead perhaps Monoplacophora.
This overview lists proposed changes in the taxonomy of gastropods at the family level and above since 2005, when the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi (2005) was published. In other words, these are recent updates in the way various groups of snails and slugs are classified.
The biological systematics and taxonomy of invertebrates as proposed by Richard C. Brusca and Gary J. Brusca in 2003 is a system of classification of invertebrates, as a way to classify animals without backbones.