Platyceratidae is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

family of Paleozoic

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

s, marine

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 ...

mollusks. This family may belong in the Patellogastropoda or the Neritimorpha. Platyceratids are known for the complex

symbiotic Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

relationships they had with crinoids. Platyceratids are thought to have been parasitic on crinoids, either drilling into the stomach to steal the crinoid's food in a form of kleptoparasitism or drilling into the anal sac to feed on the gonads or the hindgut. Previous authors have suggested that platyceratids were commensalists which fed on crinoid fecal matter without harming the crinoid, but more recent studies have shown that platyceratids did have a negative effect on their crinoid hosts as would be expected if they were actively parasitic. It has been suggested that the large spines present on many species of crinoids served to deter predators who might damage or harm the crinoid in an effort to feed on the platyceratid snails infesting it. This is the only family in the superfamily Platyceratoidea.

Genera

* ''

Platyceras ''Platyceras'' is a genus of extinct Paleozoic sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Platyceratidae. This genus is known from the Silurian to the Middle Triassic periods and especially abundant in the Devonian and Carboniferous.Pal ...

'' Conrad, 1840 - type genus * '' Palaeocapulus'' Grabau & Shimer, 1909

References

Crinoid with platyceratid (cross-section)

{{Neritimorpha-stub