Seraphsidae

Seraphsidae
Temporal range:
Shell of Terebellum terebellum, a member of the family Seraphsidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Order: Littorinimorpha
Superfamily: Stromboidea
Family: Seraphsidae
J.E. Gray, 1853
Type genus
Seraphs
Montfort, 1810
Synonyms
  • Terebellidae (Homonym of Terebellidae Grube, 1850 based on Terebella Linnaeus, 1767 [Annelida])
  • Seraphidae (Orthographic variant, misspelling, per IRMNG, based on Seraphs [in French: Seraphe] Montfort, 1810; from Seraphina Gray, 1853 [Strombidae])

Seraphsidae is a family of small to medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Stromboidea. Only one genus, Terebellum, is alive today, but several fossil genera are known, with the earliest records of the family dating back to the Danian age of the Paleocene. Seraphsids are adapted for a burrowing life, with a streamlined shell. Terebellum and its fossil relatives were originally classified as members of the closely related family Strombidae. When they were recognized as a separate family, the family was initially called Terebellidae, but as the name was already in use for a family of polychaete worms, the name Seraphsidae was proposed as a replacement, derived from the fossil genus Seraphs.