Gryphaeidae
| Gryphaeidae Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Specimens of Gryphaea articulata from the Jurassic of France | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Bivalvia |
| Order: | Ostreida |
| Superfamily: | Ostreoidea |
| Family: | Gryphaeidae Vyalov, 1936 |
| Genera | |
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See text | |
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.