Bellerophontida
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Bellerophontidae |
Bellerophontida or Bellerophontina are a group of extinct snail-like molluscs that appeared in the latest Cambrian and continued through to the Triassic. Representative genera include Sinuites, Euphemetites, Warthia, Tetranota, Bucanopsis, Tremanotus, Bellerophon, Knightites, and many others. Unlike normal gastropods, their shells are characterised by a planispiral pattern of coiling, such as one finds in shelled cephalopods shell. Experts disagree whether Bellerophontids should be classified as torted gastropods or as untorted Tergomya, or whether the group is an artificial one, consisting of a number of distinct groups of Palaeozoic molluscs that evolved the same type of spiral shell independently.
[edit] References
- Knight, J. B., Cox, L. R., Keen, A. M., Batten, R. L., Yochelson, E. L., and Robertson, R. (1960). Systematic descriptions [Archaeogastropoda]. In Moore, R. C. (ed.) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Part I. Mollusca 1, pp. 169-310. Geological Society of America and Kansas University Press, Colorado and Kansas.
- Wagner, P. J. 2001 Gastropod phylogenetics: progress, problems and implications. Journal of Paleontology 75: 1128 - 1140
