The Tegulidae Family includes the Tegula Top Shells are very similar to typical garden snails or they can be more conical in shape. The shells are angular, rounded, or straight-sided with a circular base and a round aperture and a corneous (material similar to cow horn) operculum. The exterior surface of the shells may be smooth or marked with knobs, spiral lines or radial ridges.

Tegula Top Snails are found on hard substrate or attached to plants in the intertidal zone to fairly deep water. They are herbivores using their radula to graze on algae. In turn they are preyed upon shore birds, crabs, fish, and carnivorous mollusks. They reside in tropical and temperate seas worldwide. There are about one hundred ten species in the Tegulidae Family of which twelve are found in coastal waters of the Baja.