Tiberiinae
Encyclopedia
Tiberia is a genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of minute parasitic sea snail
Sea snail
Sea snail is a common name for those snails that normally live in saltwater, marine gastropod molluscs....

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 molluscs in the family
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...

 Pyramidellidae
Pyramidellidae
Pyramidellidae, common name the pyram family, or pyramid shells, is a voluminous taxonomic family of mostly small and minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine heterobranch gastropod molluscs or micromolluscs....

, the pyrams and their allies.

Taxonomy

According to Schander
Christoffer Schander
Christoffer Schander is professor in marine biology at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is also thematic leader at the Centre of excellence in Geobiology. He was born in Sweden in 1960. His doctoral thesis , from University of Gothenburg, Sweden, treated the evolutionary relationships of the...

, Van Aartsen & Corgan (1999) the subfamily Tiberiinae contains a single genus, Tiberia.

Tiberiinae has been one of eleven recognised subfamilies in the family Pyramidellidae
Pyramidellidae
Pyramidellidae, common name the pyram family, or pyramid shells, is a voluminous taxonomic family of mostly small and minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine heterobranch gastropod molluscs or micromolluscs....

 according to the taxonomy of Ponder
Winston Ponder
Winston F. Ponder B.Sc, M.Sc, Ph.D, D.Sc. is a noted malacologist from New Zealand who has named and described many marine animals, especially micromolluscs. He is a graduate of the University of Auckland, New Zealand....

 & Lindberg
David R. Lindberg
David R. Lindberg is an American malacologist and professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the Curator for the University of California Museum of Paleontology and co-editor of the journal Molecular Systematics and Phylogeography of Mollusks.Much of his...

 (1997).

However, in the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi
Taxonomy of the Gastropoda (Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005)
The taxonomy of the Gastropoda as it was revised by Philippe Bouchet and Jean-Pierre Rocroi is currently the most up-to-date overall system for classifying gastropod mollusks...

 (2005), this subfamily has been downgraded to the rank of tribe
Tribe (biology)
In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.Some examples include the tribes: Canini, Acalypheae, Hominini, Bombini, and Antidesmeae.-See also:* Biological classification* Rank...

 Tiberiini in the subfamily Syrnolinae.

Tiberia is the type genus of the tribe Tiberiini.

Description

The shells have many-whorled, umbilicate shells that lack both shell sculpture and the tooth/teeth that are characteristic for most other members of the family Pyramidellidae
Pyramidellidae
Pyramidellidae, common name the pyram family, or pyramid shells, is a voluminous taxonomic family of mostly small and minute ectoparasitic sea snails, marine heterobranch gastropod molluscs or micromolluscs....

. They may, however, have slight folds on the columella
Columella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...

.

Species

Species in the genus Tiberia include:
  • Tiberia apicifusca van Aartsen, Gittenberger & Goud, 1998
  • Tiberia minuscula (Monterosato, 1880) - synonym: Tiberia octaviana Di Geronimo, 1973
  • Tiberia minusculoides (van Aartsen, Gittenberger & Goud, 1998)
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