Heteropods with a very reduced shell. Protoconch minute, helicoid, thick, and distinctly separated from the teleoconch; teleoconch thin, adorned with commarginal undulating beads.
 

Shell small, broadly pyramidal (Carinaria cristata) to lengthened-capuliform (Carinaria lamarckii), and keeled. « Aperture entire, ovate-oblong, narrowed towards the carina. » (Lamarck).