Shells small to medium-sized, patelliform, oval-oblong (sometimes very narrowed in kelp-dweller species), flat to elevated, radially striated. A difference with Patellidae is in the position of the apex, which is not always the highermost point of the shell (Atalacmea fragilis, Lottia gigantea, Lottia digitalis, Lottia persona, Tectura paleacea, Tectura depicta…) Concentric sculpture weak or obsolete. But the fact remains that a meaningful differenciation within Patellogastropoda can only be given by anatomical studies and/or molecular analysis.
 

Shell limpet-like, but usually flatter than in the genus Patella. The apex is antero-centrally to anteriorly placed. Contrary to Patellidae, the branchiae are not symmetrically placed on both sides of the head, but only on the left one; this results in a very slight dissymmetry of the muscle print, which is a bit wider on the right side.
 

« Animal in every way similar to that of the Limpets, but whose peripheral gills are united in a single, very small one, placed on the right side of the head, and visible from the outside. Shell most usually thin, with a very anterior apex. » – Quoy & Gaimard: Voyage de la corvette l’Astrolabe: exécuté par ordre du roi, pendant les années 1826-1827-1828-1829, sous le commandement de M. J. Dumont d’Urville. Zoologie vol.III part 1, Paris 1834, p.349.
 

« Shell symmetrical, conical, patelliform, generally depressed, and rather thin, often subhyaline and smooth, or faintly radiated upon the exterior; vertex eccentric, inclining towards the anterior; base ovate, more or less elongate; muscular impression, of a horse-shoe form, open in front. This genus has been established entirely upon the animal inhabitant, by which alone it can be distinguished; as in the form of the shell with its radiating marks, a well as in the shape of the muscular impression, it is precisely similar to Patella. » – Wood & Harmer: A monograph of the Crag Mollusca vol.I, London 1848, p.160.