Muricoidea is a taxonomic superfamily of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Neogastropoda.Bouchet, P. (2010). Muricoidea Rafinesque, 1815. In: MolluscaBase (2015). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=15138 on 2016-03-21
This superfamily includes the murex snails, the dove snails, the harp snails, and others.
Shell description The shell of the snails in this superfamily vary greatly in shape and degree of ornamentation. The shells have an oval aperture, and a noticeable siphonal canal.
Families Families within the superfamily Muricoidea are as follows: family Babyloniidae Kuroda, Habe & Oyama, 1971 -- 2 current genera family Costellariidae MacDonald, 1860 -- 11 genera family Harpidae Bronn, 1849 -- 4 genera family Muricidae Rafinesque, 1815 -- 159 genera family Pholidotomidae Cossmann, 1896 † family Pleioptygmatidae Quinn, 1989 -- 1 genus family Strepsiduridae Cossmann, 1901 -- 1 genus family Turbinellidae Swainson, 1835 -- 14 genera
family Volutomitridae Gray, 1854 -- 7 genera
References
2005. Classification and Nomenclator of Gastropod Families. Malacologia 47(1-2): 1-397. 1997. Towards a phylogeny of gastropod molluscs: an analysis using morphological characters. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 119(2): 83-265.