Atlantidae: wereldwijd voorkomend, maar weinig bekend

Though many species of Atlantidae have a world-wide distribution, the family is rather unknown. Of course, ‘every one’ is familiar with Atlanta peronii, but for many collectors of seashells it is – mistakenly – the only representative of this family. More recent knowledge about this subject is spread over many, often difficult to find, publications. I have tried to summarize the characteristics of the majority of the species (about fifteen) in the following paper. For practical reasons I classified the Atlantidae in some groups of species with the same maincharacters. With the exception of the first group, the most important feature of the shell is the protoconch: the outline, the number of whorls, sculptured or not, tilted or not.