Vasinae
Encyclopedia
Vasinae, common name
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...

 the vase snails or vase shells, are a taxonomic subfamily
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 of large predatory sea snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...

s, marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 gastropod mollusks within the family Turbinellidae
Turbinellidae
Turbinellidae are a family of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the order Neogastropoda.-Distribution:Species in this family are found world-wide, mostly in tropical shallow waters but some in deep waters.- Subfamilies :...

.

Shell description

Shells of species in this subfamily are usually fairly large, very thick, and heavy. The shells have low spire
Spire (mollusc)
A spire is a descriptive term for part of the coiled shell of mollusks. The word is a convenient aid in describing shells, but it does not refer to a very precise part of shell anatomy: the spire consists of all of the whorls except for the body whorl...

s and have plait
Plait (gastropod)
A plait is an anatomical feature which is present the shells of some snails, or gastropods. This sculpture occurs often in the shells of marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Neogastropoda, but it is also found in some pulmonate land snails....

s on the columella.
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