Lanistes | |
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Drawing of an apertural view of the shell of Lanistes ovum | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
(unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda informal group Architaenioglossa |
Superfamily: | Ampullarioidea |
Family: | Ampullariidae |
Subfamily: | Ampullariinae |
Tribe: | Ampullariini |
Genus: | Lanistes Montfort, 1810[1] |
Diversity | |
21 extant species[2][3] and at least 10 fossil species[4] |
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Synonyms | |
former subgenera: |
Lanistes is a genus of freshwater snails which have a gill and an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Ampullariidae, the apple snails.
Contents |
The distribution of the genus Lanistes includes Africa and Madagascar.[3]
Lanistes has a unique anatomy among the Ampullariidae: it has a "hyperstrophic" sinistral shell.[7] This means that the body of the snail is dextral (as in all other ampullariids), but the shell appears to be sinistral.[7] However the sinistral appearance stems from the fact that the rotation of the shell as it grows is in an upward direction rather than the usual downward direction.[7]
Three[3] subgenera have been recognized, based on shell differences: Lanistes sensu stricto, Meladomus and Leroya. These subgenera are not used in recent works.[3]
Extant species within the genus Lanistes include:
Fossil species within the genus Lanistes include: