See text Pleurotomariacea is one of two names that are used for a taxonomic superfamily of sea snails that are an ancient lineage and are well represented in the fossil record.

The name Pleurotomariacea is based on Swainson, 1840 (Pleurotomariae) and was described in 1960 in the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, (I197)[2] The taxon was established for mostly conispiral, but also discoidal and auriform (ear-like) shells which have a nacreous, aragonite, inner layer.

[3] although more recent classifications put it in a more restricted sense in the Vetigastropoda[4] The evolutionary derivation of the group is thought to be from the Bellerophontacea and to have happened late in the Cambrian.

Catantostomatidae, Eotomariidae, Euomphalopteridae, Gosselitinidae, Haliotidae, Kittlidiscidae, Laubellidae, Lophospiridae, Luciellidae, Phanerotrematidae, Phymatopleuridae, Pleurotromariidae, Polytremerida, Portlockiellidae, Rhaphischismatidae, Raphystomatidae, Scissurellidae, Sinuopeidae, Tremnotropidae, Trochotomidae, Zygitidae.

Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005, with a greater emphasis on molecular characteristics than shell characters, limited the Pleurotomariacea, as Pleurotomarioidea, to the Pleurotomariidae, Catantostomatidae, Kittilidacidae, Phymatopleuridae, Portlockiellidae, Rhaphischismatidae, Trochotomidae, and Zygitidae.