Laevidentalium Cossmann 1888

Laevidentalium Cossmann, 1888 Type species: Dentalium incertum Deshayes, 1826, by original designation. Notes The genus Laevidentalium Cossmann, 1888 (Cossmann 1888, p. 7) was introduced to include dentaliid scaphopods whose shells have an oval cross-section, truncate apical opening without a notch and a smooth surface marked by growth lines only. Scarabino (1995), p. 291, provides an extended generic diagnosis including both shell and radular characters; however, as the type taxon Dentalium incertum Deshayes, 1826 is an Eocene fossil, the placement of all other fossil and extant scaphopod species in this conchologically rather featureless genus remains to be clarified (Scarabino and Scarabino 2011).