Stromboidea

• Colombellinidae Fischer, 1884

Original Description of the family Colombellinidae by Fischer, 1884:

• "Coquille solide, généralement treillissée, rugueuse, subvariqueuse, costellée; ouverture très étroite; canal antérieur court; canal postérieur oblique, plus ou moins long; labre épais; columelle calleuse."

Belong to Colombellinidae:

• Colombellina d'Orbigny, 1842
• Columbellaria Rolle, 1861
• Eoranella Sayn, 1932
• Neocolombellina Bandel & Dockery, 2012
• Zittelia Gemmellaro, 1869

might belong to Colombellinidae

• Rhealaria de Ryckholt, 1862

History and Synonymy

Colombellinidae Fischer, 1884

• syn.: Columbellariidae Zittel, 1895
• syn.: Zitteliidae Schilder, 1936

1926

Wade, 1926, p. 18:

• "Columbellina [sic] is the only genus of the family Columbellariidae in the Coon Creek, and that genus is represented by only one species, which is the first of this genus to be found in the Upper Cretaceous deposits of North America."

1936

Schilder, 1936: Zitteliidae; Type Genus: Zittelia Gemmellaro, 1869

2012

Bandel & Dockery, 2012, p. 101 placed the Colombellinidae into the superfamily Cassoidea LATREILLE, 1825

Bandel & Dockery, 2012, p. 102:

• "Family Colombellinidae P. FISCHER, 1884: The shell has a low spire and a thickened outer lip with tubercles on its inner side, folds on the inner lip and a siphon-like notch on both sides of the narrow aperture. Ornament of the teleoconch consists of spiral ribs crossed by axial ribs forming rectangular pattern. The genus Colombellina ORBIGNY, 1843, has Early Cretaceous type (Rostellaria monodactylus DESHAYES, 1842) with protoconch unknown. ZITTEL (1885) placed into the Family next to Columbellaria ROLLE, 1861, also Zittelia GEMMELARO, 1870, and Colombellina ORBIGNY, 1843. He interpreted it as a predominantly Jurassic taxon that intermediates between Strombidae and Cassididae. SCHILDER (1927) suggested that Colombellina evolved via Zittelia to the Cypraeidae, and connected the Strombidae with the Cypraeidae and Tonnidae. The type species of Colombellina from France differs from Neocolombellina n. gen. from Ripley Formation by having a posterior siphon-like notch on its aperture in addition to the anterior siphon (SOHL, 1960).

Comment (Cited from British Shell Collectors, 2003):

• The cowries are believed to have evolved from this family of smallish, vaguely Marginella-like shells (Colombellinidae), specifically, from the genus Zittellia Gemellaro, 1869. These lived during the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous periods. This gave rise to the Cypraeidae, the Ovulidae (Amphiperatidae) the Triviidae (Eratoidae) and a few very small families. The first known true cowries belonged a genus of small, fairly ordinary-looking Cypraeids with a prominent spire and short, fine teeth called Palaeocypraea during the upper Cretaceous period, some 100 million years ago.

References

• K. Bandel & D.T. Dockery III, 2012. Protoconch characters of Late Cretaceous Latrogastropoda (Neogastropoda and Neomesogastropoda) as an aid in the reconstruction of the phylogeny of the Neogastropoda, Freiberger Forschungshefte, C542, psf (20), 93–128.
• Sayn 1932. Description de la Faune de l'Urgonien de Barcelonne. Travaux du Laboratoire de Geologie Lyon, 18(15) 1932: pp. 1-67
• Schilder, F.A. 1936. Anatomical characters of the Cypraeacea which confirm the conchological classification; Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London, 22(2), 75-112, pls. 11-12.
• Wade, 1926