Cephalaspidea

This article is about the gastropod taxon. For the prehistoric fish taxon, see Cephalaspida.

Headshield slugs
A live individual of Chelidonura varians in the family Aglajidae, head end towards the lower left
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subterclass: Tectipleura
Order: Cephalaspidea
Superfamilies

See text

The order Cephalaspidea, also known as the headshield slugs and bubble snails, is a major taxon of sea slugs and bubble snails, marine gastropod mollusks within the larger clade Euopisthobranchia.[1] Bubble shells is another common name for these families of marine gastropods, some of which have thin bubble-like shells.[2] This clade contains more than 600 species.[3]

Members of this worldwide clade used to be considered the most ancestral of the opisthobranchs, but now they are considered as derived and specialized members of the Euthyneura Spengel, 1881.[4]

Headshield slugs are the most morphologically diverse group of all the opisthobranchs.[citation needed]

  1. ^ Jörger, Katharina M; Stöger, Isabella; Kano, Yasunori; Fukuda, Hiroshi; Knebelsberger, Thomas; Schrödl, Michael (2010). "On the origin of Acochlidia and other enigmatic euthyneuran gastropods, with implications for the systematics of Heterobranchia". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 10 (1): 323. Bibcode:2010BMCEE..10..323J. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-10-323. PMC 3087543. PMID 20973994.
  2. ^ Dance, S. P. (1996). Shells. The visual guide to over 500 species of seashell from around the world. Dorling Kindersley. pp. 200–203. ISBN 0-86318-811-7.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Oskars was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Wägele, Heike; Klussmann-Kolb, Annette; Verbeek, Eva; Schrödl, Michael (2014). "Flashback and foreshadowing—a review of the taxon Opisthobranchia". Organisms Diversity & Evolution. 14: 133–149. doi:10.1007/s13127-013-0151-5.