Dear friends There is a couple of very interesting articles by Rolan & Raybaudi in which a comparison between the radular teeth of conidae, turridae and Conorbis is made. The radular tooth in conorbiinae is essentially similar to that in conidae, but different from turridae. Conorbis re-absorb the inner walls of their shell as in Conus, and at variance with turridae (i.e. Genota). It is likely that Conorbis represent an evolutionary missing link between conidae and turridae. Furthermore, only two species of Conorbis are extant (living) as far as I am aware of, namely Conorbis coromandelicus and more recently, Conorbis adami. However, there is a much larger record of fossil species attributed to Conorbis. In fact, the genus is introduced as: Conorbis Swainson, 1840 in "A Treatise on Malacology, p. 312". The type species for this genus is C. dormiter Sowerby I [= C. dormitor Solander in Brander, 1766], an Eocene fossil from Europe (Hampshire, England). As a conclusion, Conorbis appears much closer to Conidae (specially to certain species such as C. teramachii, C. profundorum or C. smirna) than to Turridae. I don't know if the most recent adscription in 2005 of Conorbis to Conidae is based in genetic (DNA) studies, since I haven't read the paper. I have also heard that Conorbis is a fossil genus and that the two extant species should belong to a different genus. Somebody has any information on this? Warmest regards Manuel Jimenez Tenorio ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs To leave this list, click on the following web link: http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1 Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and click leave the list. ----------------------------------------------------------------------