Ficidae,

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

the fig shells are a family of medium to large

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

s. It is the only family in the superfamily Ficoidea. According to taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi (2005) the family Ficidae has no subfamilies. The shells of these snails are shaped rather like

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

s or pears, hence the common name. The Ficidae were previously included in the Tonnaceae (now

Tonnoidea The Tonnoidea are a superfamily of sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the order Littorinimorpha. This superfamily includes many very large species. Nomenclature Beu (1998, 2008) favours usage of Tonnoidea and Tonnidae rather than Cas ...

) along with the Tonnidae and

Cassididae The Cassidae are a taxonomic family of medium-sized, large, and sometimes very large sea snails commonly called helmet snails or bonnet snails. These are marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Tonnoidea and the clade Littorinimorpha.Gofas, ...

Distribution

The family is found worldwide, mostly in tropical and

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

silt and

mud A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

covered neritic zones.

Shell description

The shells of species in the Ficidae are thin but strong. They have a large aperture and a long

siphonal canal The siphonal canal is an anatomical feature of the shells of certain groups of sea snails within the clade Neogastropoda. Some sea marine gastropods have a soft tubular anterior extension of the mantle called a siphon through which water is ...

, but an extremely low spire which does not protrude above the outline of the

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology of the shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. In gastropods In gastropods, the b ...

. Fig shells very often have subdued spiral

ribbing Ribbing is a Swedish noble family of medieval origin. which may refer to: *Adolph Ribbing (1765–1843), Swedish count and politician who took part in the regicide of Gustav III in 1792 *Beata Rosenhane (1638–1674, spouse of Baron Erik Ribbing), ...

, and are subtly patterned in shades of very pale brown and beige.

Genera

Genera within the family Ficidae include: * '' Ficus'' Röding, 1798 * † '' Austroficopsis'' Stilwell & Zinsmeister, 1992 * † ''

Ficopsis ''Ficopsis'' is an extinct genus of large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Ficidae, the fig snails. This species lived from the Paleocene to the Miocene in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. References ...

'' Conrad, 1866 * † '' Fusoficula'' * † '' Gonysycon'' * ''

Thalassocyon ''Thalassocyon'' is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Thalassocyonidae. Taxonomy Riedel (1995) elevated this genus to a family level (Thalassocyonidae), a vision not supported in Verhaeghe & Poppe (2000), nor in Bou ...

'' Barnard, 1960WoRMS (2010). ''Thalassocyon'' Barnard, 1960. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=447827 on 2010-05-20 ;Genera brought into synonymy: * ''Ficula'' Swainson, 1835 : synonym of Ficus Röding, 1798 * ''Pirula'' Montfort, 1810 : synonym of Ficus Röding, 1798 * ''Pyrula'' Lamarck, 1799 : synonym of Ficus Röding, 1798 * ''Sycotypus'' Gray, 1847 : synonym of Ficus Röding, 1798

Distribution

Shell description

Genera

References

Further reading