Animal having the tentacles long, annulate, ciliiform ; epipodial line with 3 pairs of cirri; frontal lobes large, fringed ; the ocular peduncles rather short. The radula has the formula oo 1.5 + 1 + 5.1 oo ; the central tooth rhomboidal, constricted above ; the outer lateral irregular in form.
Shell usually perforate or umbilicate, conical, the spire moderately elevated ; whorls often gibbous or tuberculose beneath the sutures, smooth or spirally ribbed ; the last generally angular at the periphery ; aperture subrhomboidal ; columella oblique, dentate or subsinuous at base ; outer lip acute.
The species of Gibbula are very numerous, and are nearly all littoral or laminarian in station. The group is distributed through all seas, except upon the coasts of America, which have not a single species.