Staffordiidae
| Staffordiidae | |
|---|---|
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| A drawing of an apertural view of a shell of Staffordia daflaensis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Heterobranchia clade Euthyneura clade Panpulmonata clade Eupulmonata clade Stylommatophora informal group Sigmurethra clade limacoid clade |
| Superfamily: |
Staffordioidea Thiele, 1931 |
| Family: |
Staffordiidae Thiele, 1931 |
| Genera | |
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See text |
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See text
Staffordiidae is a family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Staffordioidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).
Staffordiidae is the only family in the superamily Staffordioidea. This family has no subfamilies (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005).
Staffordiidae is a poorly understood family, because it occurs only in the Dafla Hills area of India. The fauna and flora of that area has not been researched sufficiently.
Various sources consider the family Staffordiidae as part of Dyakiidae or Ariophantidae/Dyakiinae.
The distribution of the Staffordiidae includes only India in the Dafla Hills.
This area is close to northern margin of the Indian plate. 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 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. 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.
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