Turridae

Turridae is a taxonomic family name for a number of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Conoidea. The family name Turridae was originally given to a very large group of several thousand sea snail species that were thought to be closely related. However, that original grouping was discovered to be polyphyletic.

In recent years, the family Turridae has been much reduced in size, because a number of other families were created to contain the monophyletic lineages that had previously been thought to belong in the same family.

The common name "turrids" is still used informally to refer to the polyphyletic group.

Distribution

Species in the family Turridae are found worldwide; most are found in the neritic zone.

Shell description

The shape of the shells is more or less fusiform. The whorls are elongate to broadly conical.

Turrids are carnivorous, predatory gastropods. Most species have a poison gland used with the toxoglossan radula, used to prey on vertebrates and invertebrate animals (mostly polychaete worms) or in self-defense. Some turrids have lost the radula and the poison gland. The radula, when present, has two or three teeth in a row. It lacks lateral teeth and the marginal teeth are of the wishbone or duplex type. The teeth with a duplex form are not shaped from two distinct elements but grow from a flat plate, by thickening at the edges of the teeth and elevation of the rear edge from the membrane.