The Nassariidae, Nassa mud snails (US), or dog whelks (UK) are a taxonomicfamily of small to medium-sized snails, mostly marinegastropodmollusks in the clade Neogastropoda. These snails have rounded shells with a high spire, an oval aperture, and a siphonal notch. This family of snails is found worldwide.
These snails are found mostly in shallow water, on sandy or muddy substrates, often intertidally, but sometimes in deep water. They can be present in very large numbers in suitable habitat. Nassariidae are primarily active and lively scavengers.
The operculum is ovate, acute and with an apical nucleus; the margin is entire or serrated. The eyes in some of the genera are near the base of the tentacles, in others near their middle, and are sometimes wanting. The aperture of the shell is either truncate, or with a short recurved siphonal canal, and the inner lip is usually callous and spreading over the body whorl.[3]
The family Nassariidae is closely related to the family of the true whelks, Buccinidae, because of their shared characteristics in the anatomy of the species in these families,[4][5][6][7]), i.e. a long proboscis, the loss of glandular dorsal folds, and a smaller gland of Leiblein (a dorsal venom gland in the mid-oesophagus).
In 2017, Strong, Galindo & Kantor, 2017 recognized Anentominae as a new subfamily.[9]
Kantor et al. (2022) used molecular data to revise the classification of the Buccinoidea superfamily, proposing 20 taxa of family rank and 23 subfamilies.[10] This included the description of a new subfamily of Nassariidae, Tomliniinae.[10]
^Strong, E. E., Galindo, L. A., & Kantor, Y. I. (2017). "Quid est Clea helena? Evidence for a previously unrecognized radiation of assassin snails (Gastropoda: Buccinoidea: Nassariidae)". PeerJ5: e3638. doi:10.7717/peerj.3638.
