Velainellidae

Velainellidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Mollusca
Class:	Gastropoda
Clade:	Vetigastropoda
Order:	Trochida
Superfamily:	Trochoidea
Family:	†Velainellidae; Vasseur [ fr ], 1880
Genera and species
	Velainella ;

Last updated April 08, 2019

Velainellidae is a very small taxonomic family of fossil sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Trochoidea, the top snails, turban snails and their allies.

In biology, taxonomy is the science of defining and naming groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped together into taxa and these groups are given a taxonomic rank; groups of a given rank can be aggregated to form a super-group of higher rank, thus creating a taxonomic hierarchy. The principal ranks in modern use are domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus is regarded as the founder of the current system of taxonomy, as he developed a system known as Linnaean taxonomy for categorizing organisms and binomial nomenclature for naming organisms.

A fossil is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood, oil, coal, and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the fossil record.

Sea snail is a common name for snails that normally live in salt water, in other words marine gastropods. The taxonomic class Gastropoda also includes snails that live in other habitats, such as land snails and freshwater snails. Many species of sea snails are edible and exploited as food sources by humans.

Genera

This family contains only one genus: the Eocene genus Velainella, named by Vasseur 1880 and found in France.

The Eocene Epoch, lasting from 56 to 33.9 million years ago, is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope ¹³C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope ¹²C. The end is set at a major extinction event called the Grande Coupure or the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Siberia and in what is now Chesapeake Bay. As with other geologic periods, the strata that define the start and end of the epoch are well identified, though their exact dates are slightly uncertain.

France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

Description

Velainella has a long, narrow, almost straight-side shell with a smooth-lipped oval aperture.

Taxonomy changes

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 within the Archaeogastropoda. Trochacea is the original spelling for what is now Trochoidea.

The taxonomy of the Gastropoda as it was revised in 2005 by Philippe Bouchet and Jean-Pierre Rocroi is a system for the scientific classification of gastropod mollusks. The paper setting out this taxonomy was published in the journal Malacologia. The system encompasses both living and extinct groups, as well as some fossils whose classification as gastropods is uncertain.

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.

Loxonematoidea is an extinct taxonomic superfamily of sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs, belonging to the Murchisoniinae.

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Strepsodiscus is an extinct genus of very primitive fossil snail-like molluscs from the early part of the Late Cambrian of North America. The coiled, slightly asymmetrical shells are about 3 cm in height. It is not known whether these are shells of gastropods or monoplacophorans, which are more primitive mollusks.

Bellerophontidae family of molluscs (fossil)

The Bellerophontidae are an extinct family of specialized globose bellerophontids, Paleozoic and early Triassic mollusks of the class Gastropoda.

Turbinidae, the turban snails, are a family of small to large marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Trochoidea.

Stomatellinae is a subfamily of small sea snails with a brilliantly nacreous interior of the shell, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Trochidae, the top snails.

Liotiidae is a family of small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Vetigastropoda.

Phasianellidae common name the "pheasant shells" or "pheasant snails" is a family of small sea snails with calcareous opercula, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Vetigastropoda.

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 a clade in Bouchet and Rocroi, 2005.

Bellerophontoidea superfamily of molluscs

Bellerophontoidea,, common name "bellerophonts", is a superfamily of extinct planospirally-coiled globose molluscs. This superfamily is generally included within the Gastropoda, but may instead be a group of monoplacophorans. The taxon first appeared late in the Cambrian and continued until late in the Triassic.

Turbinoidea was a superfamily of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Vetigastropoda. But it has become an available name, because it is no longer used in the current taxonomy of gastropods sensu Williams et al. (2008).

Bucanellidae is an extinct family of Paleozoic molluscs of uncertain position, belonging either to Gastropoda (snails) or Monoplacophora. The family lived from the upper Cambrian to middle Permian and the shells are characterized by a relatively small median sinus in the upper margin of the aperture, and collabral (transverse) or spiral (longitudinal) threads covering the shell. The shells are planispirally coiled rather than trochospirally with a spire as is the case with most shelled gastropods.

Bucaniidae is an extinct family of paleozoic molluscs of uncertain position possibly being either Gastropods or Monoplacophorans in the superfamily Bellerophontoidea. The family lived from the Lower Ordovician to the Devonian and have shells in which the apertural margins tend to flare. Most genera have a slit and selenizone, others some modification of this feature.

Macluritidae is an extinct family of relatively large, Lower Ordovician to Devonian, macluritacean gastropods(?), hypserstrophically coiled, that is dextral while appearing sinsitral, of which the genus Maclurites is arch-typical. The base of their shells is flat or gently protruding while the upper side is generally concave.

Paraturbinidae is an extinct family of snails from the Mesozoic period, gastropod mollusks.

The †Raphistomatidae is a taxonomic family of fossil sea snails, Paleozoic marine gastropod mollusks. This family was established by Koken in 1896. This family is found in the fossil record from the Upper Cambrian to the Middle Permian.

Angarioidea is a superfamily of small to medium sized sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Vetigastropoda.

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 Trochina is a taxon that is used by paleontologists. It is a suborder of primitive sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks.

Margaritidae is a family of small sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Trochoidea.

Trochida is an order of small to very large vetigastropod, Recent and extinct sea snails with gills and an operculum.

References

J.Brookes Knight, et al. 1960. Systematic Descriptions (of gastropods); Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part I, Mollusca 1. Geological Soc of America and University of Kansas Press, 1960.
Velainellidae -Paleodb

External links

An image of Velainella columnaris

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