Alvania Risso, 1826

Kowalke, Thorsten & Harzhauser, Mathias, 2004, Early ontogeny and palaeoecology of the Mid-Miocene rissoid gastropods of the Central Paratethys, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49 (1), pp. 111-134 : 118

Genus Alvania Risso, 1826

Remarks.— Alvania was regarded as belonging to its own subfamily Alvaniinae by Golikov and Starobogatov in Golikov and Scarlato (1972) and by Nordsieck (1972). Golikov and Starobogatov (1975) even elevated this taxon to family rank within their superfamily Alvanioidea . As indicated by Ponder (1985), however, the teleoconch sculpture, operculum and radular characters are similar to Rissoa . The protoconch morphology and sculpture exhibit a coarser larval sculpture in most species with planktotrophic development, with frequently occurring zigzag−shaped spiral striae. Nonetheless, the pitted sculpture and even weakly sculptured, rather smooth protoconchs hardly distinguish Alvania from Rissoinae on a suprageneric level.