Sphincterochilidae is a taxonomic

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

of medium-sized air-breathing

land snail A land snail is any of the numerous species of snail that live on land, as opposed to the sea snails and freshwater snails. ''Land snail'' is the common name for terrestrial gastropod mollusks that have shells (those without shells are known as ...

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates, is an informal group (previously an order, and before that a subclass) 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 includ ...

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 ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

s in the superfamily

Helicoidea Helicoidea is a taxonomic superfamily of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the clade Stylommatophora. Taxonomy 2005 taxonomy There are 19 families within the superfamily Helicoidea according to the ta ...

(according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). In the

fossil record A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) 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 ...

, Sphincterochilidae are known from the upper

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

to the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

."Family summary for Sphincterochilidae"

AnimalBase AnimalBase is a project brought to life in 2004 and is maintained by the University of Göttingen, Germany. The goal of the AnimalBase project is to digitize early zoological literature, provide copyright-free open access to zoological works, and pr ...

, last modified 27 August 2005, accessed 10 April 2009.

Distribution

The distribution of Sphincterochilidae includes the western-

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

zone.Hausdorf B. (2000). "Biogeography of the Limacoidea sensu lato (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora): Vicariance Events and Long-Distance Dispersal". '' Journal of Biogeography'' 27(2): 379-390.
JSTOR

Taxonomy

The following two subfamilies have been recognized in the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi (2005): * subfamily Sphincterochilinae Zilch, 1960 (1910) - synonyms: Calcarinidae Pallary, 1909 (inv.); Albeidae Pallary, 1910. Sphincterochilidae is a conserved name to take the priority of Leucochroidae Westerlund, 1886. * subfamily † Pseudoleptaxinae H. Nordsieck, 1986

Genera

Genera within the family Sphincterochilidae include: Sphincterochilinae * † '' Asensidea'' Calzada, 2003 * '' Sphincterochila'' Ancey, 1887 - type genus of the family Sphincterochilidae † Pseudoleptaxinae * † '' Dentellocaracolus'' Oppenheim, 1890 * † '' Fridolinia'' Pilsbry, 1895 † * † '' Pseudoleptaxis'' Pilsbry, 1895Tryon G. W. & Pilsbry H. A. (1894). ''

Manual of Conchology George Washington Tryon Jr. (20 May 1838 – 5 February 1888) was an American malacologist who worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Biography George Washington Tryon was the son of Edward K. Tryon and Adeline Savidt. ...

'' (2)9
294
- type genus o the subfamily Pseudoleptaxinae * † '' Wenzia'' Pfeffer, 1930

Ecology

Sphincterochilidae land snails are xerothermophilous, i.e. they are well adapted to hot, arid places.

References

* Bank, R. A. (2017). Classification of the Recent terrestrial Gastropoda of the World. Last update: July 16th, 2017.

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15727507