Family Bursidae - frog shells

  Order
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  Class
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Gastropoda
  No. of Genera in Ref.
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  No. of Species in Ref.
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  Environment
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Fresh : No | Brackish : No | Marine : Yes
  Aquarium
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  First Fossil Record
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  Remark
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Shell ovate to slightly elongate, often dorsoventrally compressed. Sculpture coarsely knobbed to finely beaded, with 2 strong axial varices per whorl obsolete to absent, not hairy or shaggy. Aperture with a short anterior siphonal canal and a distinct, slot-like posterior canal. Outer lip usually thick and denticulate inside, inner lip more or less calloused, with transverse ridges or granules (rarely smooth). Operculum corneous, its nucleus at the mid-inner margin or at the anterior end. Head with an extensible, distally flattened snout, and slender filiform tentacles bearing eyes at their respiratory siphon anteriorly and a very short, permanent anal siphon posteriorly. Active predators, living on tropical, shallow water coral reefs and rocks, to deeper waters on the continental shelf, on sand and mud bottoms. Mainly feeding on sedentary polychaete worms, which are anaesthetized with an acidic saliva, removed from their tubes and swallowed whole. Sexes separate, fertilization internal. Eggs laid in a gelatinous matrix, sometimes brooded by the female with its foot, hatching as free-swimming planktonic larvae. Locally collected for food and shell trade, either at low tide or with trawls, depending on the species (Ref. 348).
  Etymology
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  Division
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  Reproductive guild
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  Typical activity level
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  Main Ref.
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  Coordinator
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Ref.
[ e.g. 9948]                       
Glossary
                    [ e.g. cephalopods]