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Staffordiidae
Family of gastropods From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Staffordiidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Trochomorphoidea.[2]
Staffordiidae is the only family in the superfamily Staffordioidea. This family has no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).
Staffordiidae is a poorly understood[3] family, because it occurs only in the Dafla Hills area of India. The fauna and flora of that area has not been researched sufficiently.[3]
Various sources consider the family Staffordiidae as part of Dyakiidae[4] or Ariophantidae/Dyakiinae.[5]
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Distribution
The distribution of the Staffordiidae includes only India in the Dafla Hills.[3]
This area is close to northern margin of the Indian Plate.[3] The historical area of origin of the Staffordiidae has not been researched because the coastal area in southern Asia where it is found became uninhabitable[3] after the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate collided 50 to 55 million years ago. The original ancestral area of limacoid families is thought to be the Palaearctic region and south-eastern Asia.[3] Thus, it has been hypothesized that the Staffordiidae colonized its current area from the southern margin of the Asian part of the Eurasian Plate during the Oligocene period.[3]
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Genera
Genera within the family Staffordiidae include:
- Staffordia Godwin-Austen, 1907[6] – type genus of the family
- Staffordia daflaensis (Godwin-Austen)[5]
- Staffordia staffordi Godwin-Austen, 1907[5][6]
- Staffordia toruputuensis Godwin-Austen[5]
The generic name Staffordia is in honor of Brigadier-General Stafford,[who?] who was in command of the punitive force which entered the Dafla Hills for the first time in the winter of 1874–1875.[6]
The foot of Staffordia is pointed.[6] The peripodial margin is simple with a narrow pale margin.[6] There are small right and left shell-lobes.[6]
Reproductive system of Staffordia: the dart-sac is small, globose, with a long cord-like attachment to a coronal gland.[6] The penis is simple.[6] The spermatheca is long.[6]
The radula of Staffordia has aculeate lateral teeth.[6]
Comparison of shells of three Staffordia species:
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Cladogram
Staffordiidae is considered a sister group of all other families in the limacoid clade.[3]
The following cladogram shows the phylogenic relationships of this family and superfamily to the other families within the limacoid clade:[3]
| limacoid clade |
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References
Further reading
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