Sea butterfly
| Sea butterflies Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Limacina helicina | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| Clade: | Euopisthobranchia |
| Order: | Pteropoda |
| Suborder: | Thecosomata Blainville, 1824 |
| Families | |
|
Limacinidae | |
The Thecosomata (collective/plural: thecosomes, meaning "case/shell-body"), or sea butterflies, are a taxonomic suborder of small, pelagic, free-swimming sea snails known as holoplanktonic opisthobranch gastropod mollusks, in the order Pteropoda (also included within the informal group Opisthobranchia). Most pteropods have some form of calcified shell, although it is often very light, even translucent.
The sea butterflies include some of the world's most abundant gastropod species; as their large numbers are an essential part of the ocean food chain, they are a significant contributor to the oceanic carbon cycle.