Amphibolidae

Amphibola crenata

The Amphibolidae are a family of marine snails from the order of snails ( Pulmonata ). There is not a common German name. They live primarily in coastal areas of Indopazifiks.

Features

The animals have a hand serving as a lung mantle cavity, with which they absorb oxygen from the air, as is typical for lung worm. On the other hand, they have both a dish lid (operculum ), as is typical for many sea snails, and partly also a free-swimming veliger larva. They are due to this combination of features in many cases as the most primitive living representative of the snails.

Distribution and number of species

The Amphibolidae occur to the Arabian Gulf in the Indo-Pacific from Australia. They live in the coastal area in the mangrove, in salt marshes and on muddy banks of estuaries.

Paleontology

Fossil, the family is known only from the Pliocene.

System

External system: The family is temporarily here for paraphyletic group of water snails in the broader sense ( " Basommatophora " ) expected. Their exact position in the taxonomic system is not yet finally resolved. In many cases, you will be awarded the status of a separate superfamily Amphiboloidea.

Inside systematics: the systematic subdivision is currently in flux. The following overview is a compromise between traditional and modern systematic proposals and divides the family into four genera one:

• Amphibola Schumacher, 1817, only one species ( Amphibola crenata ), New Zealand
• Lactiforis Golding, Ponder & Byrne, 2007
• Naranjia Golding, Ponder & Byrne, 2007
• Salinator Hedley, 1900; about 6 species, Australia and Southeast Asia

Recent studies challenge the historical nature Salinator Takii in the newly created genus Lactiforis; the type Salinator solidarity is elevated to the rank of a new family Phallomedusidae and placed in the newly created genus Phallomedusa. In addition, another new family Maningrididae is created ( with the kind Maningrida arnhemensis ). The taxonomic position of several other described species is still largely uncertain. All three families ( Amphibolidae, Phallomedusidae and Maningrididae ) are provided by the authors mentioned in the superfamily Amphiboloidea.