Zootaxa 3754 (3): 239–276 ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ Article ZOOTAXA Copyright © 2014 Magnolia Press ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3754.3.2 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9E645014-5464-4E7C-8D4A-0B3B52A5AA53 Lost and found: The Eocene family Pyramimitridae (Neogastropoda) discovered in the Recent fauna of the Indo-Pacific YURI KANTOR1, PIERRE LOZOUET2, NICOLAS PUILLANDRE3 & PHILIPPE BOUCHET4 1A.N.Severtzov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninski prosp. 33, Moscow 119071, Russia. E-mail
[email protected] 2Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 55, Rue Buffon, 75231, Paris, France. E-mail
[email protected] 3Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, UMR7205 ISyEB, 43 rue Cuvier, 75005, France. E-mail
[email protected] 4Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 55, Rue Buffon, 75231, Paris, France. E-mail
[email protected] Abstract Most neogastropod families have a continuous record from the Cretaceous or Paleogene to the Recent. However, the fossil record also contains a number of obscure nominal families with unusual shell characters that are not adequately placed in the current classification. Some of these are traditionally regarded as valid, and some have been “lost” in synonymy. One such “lost” family is the Pyramimitridae, established by Cossmann in 1901 for the Eocene genus Pyramimitra, and currently included in the synonymy of Buccinidae. Examination of several species of inconspicuous, small turriform gastropods has revealed a radula type so far unknown in Neogastropoda, and their shell characters identify them as members of the "extinct" family Pyramimitridae. Neither the radular morphology nor the anatomy reveal the relationships of this enigmatic, “living fossil” family.