> During the eighties, some people considered there was only one valid
> genus, Cypraea. Thus, as mariae was still assigned to an other species,
> your cowry was named matellum.
> Today, as one recognizes many geni in Cypraeidae, the epithet mariae is,
> again, valid. Annepona mariae (Schilder, 1927).
Most of the so-called "genera" I believe are still unsupported by
cladistic or DNA work (correct me if I'm wrong). A few are obviously
valid, just from shell characters: Zoila, Pustularia (maybe),
Erosaria, Umbilia (maybe) and perhaps a few others. Shell characters
of most cypraeids are so indistinct that placement by these are
unwarranted.
It's not as bad as the cones, where only Conus, Cylinder and 2 or 3
others containing very few species (geographus, striatus) are viable.
Notoficula belongs somewhere in Cypraeoidea, but which family I don't know.
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