Light-coloured shell medium to high in profile. All slopes typically straight with rounded radial ribs; brown radial markings common. Ventral plates of radula complex, with strong lateral processes and sutures; lateral teeth typically of equal size and shape. Habitats limited to calcareous substrata in the high intertidal to supratidal zone. Included species: E. profunda, E. pustulata, omanensis, E. albonotata, E. mauritiana, E. javanica, E. conoidalis, E. chamorrorum, E. ivani, E. calamus, E. ceylanica, and E. semirubida. Etymology: An early (Eo) Acmaea. This genus is the most basal branch in the phylogenetic tree of the Patellogastropoda. Distribution: South Africa, tropical Indo-Pacific, Caribbean.

The limpets belonging to the order Patellogastropoda are common inhabitants of intertidal rocky shores throughout the world oceans, typically as important grazers in intertidal systems (Branch 1985a b). The genus Eoacmaea was earlier referred to as the Patelloida profunda group (Christiaens 1975; Lindberg and Vermeij 1985). Nakano and Ozawa (2007) revealed that this group is different from other species of the genus Patelloida both morphologically and genetically and designated it as a new genus Eoacmaea (Nakano and Ozawa 2007). Furthermore, Eoacmaea was found to be a basal branch among the recent Patellogastropoda. The new family Eoacmaeidae was established for this genus (Nakano and Ozawa 2007). However, there are long branch attraction problems due to the long insertions and deletions in Lottioidea of Patellogastropoda to construct the phylogenetic tree (Uribe et al. 2019; Ponder et al. 2020). Although the distinct mt genome organization of Eoacmaea is reported (Uribe et al. 2019), the placement of this family is still debated (Uribe et al. 2019; Ponder et al.2020).
Eoacmaeid limpets formerly assigned as Patelloida profunda group are limited to limestone in high to supratidal zone and widely distributed in South Africa, Indo-Pacific and Caribbean. The highest diversity of eoacmaeid limpets can be found in the Indo-West Pacific
(Christiaens 1975; Ponder and Creese 1980; Lindberg and Vermeij 1985; Kirkendale and Meyer 2004). A molecular phylogenetic analysis of the genus Eoacmaea based on the two mitochondrial genes, 16S and COI has been conducted and results revealed that Eoacmaea is genetically highly differentiated in each island and likely harbors undescribed species especially in Indo-West Pacific (Kirkendale and Meyer 2004). Among this undescribed diversity, so far only Eoacmaea javanica has been described from Java, Indonesia (Nakano et al. 2005).