The Gryphaeidae, common name the foam oysters or honeycomb oysters, are a family of marine bivalve mollusks. This family of bivalves is very well represented in the fossil record, however the number of living species is very few.
All species have shells cemented to a substrate. Shells are considered brittle, inequivalve, with the left, lower (cemented) valve convex and the right (upper, non-cemented) valve flat or slightly concave.[2]
Genera and species within this family are divided into three subfamilies, Exogyrinae, Gryphaeinae and Pycnodonteinae. Both Exogyrinae and Gryphaeinae are completely extinct. Only two genera Hyotissa and Neopycnodonte in the subfamily Pycnodonteinae have extant species.[3][4][5]
Genera and species within the family Gryphaeidae include: Family Gryphaeidae Vialov, 1936 (some genera also known as Devil's toenails)
Praeexogyra hebridica from the Frome Clay (Bathonian, Middle Jurassic) of Langton Herring, Dorset, England. Liostrea strigilecula from the Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic) of southwestern Utah. The Gryphaeidae, common name the foam oysters or honeycomb oysters, are a family of marine bivalve mollusks. This family of bivalves is very well represented in the fossil record, however the number of living species is very few.
All species have shells cemented to a substrate. Shells are considered brittle, inequivalve, with the left, lower (cemented) valve convex and the right (upper, non-cemented) valve flat or slightly concave.
