Shell solid, inflated, ovate. Periostracum adherent. Sculpture of commarginal lirae or riblets, often obsolete. Umbones prosogyrate. Hinge plate arched, strong. Taxodont teeth in continuous series, minute in central section. Ligament opisthodetic, external, partly sunken into a groove. Siphons absent; mantle with conspicuous papillae bordering incurrcnt region. Labial palps small. Gills small, oblique. These solid little shells are difficult to identify, and though the teeth are in a continuous series, those beneath the umboncs may be minute. Recorded as early as the Pliocene. Named from the Greek proper name Tyndareus, a king of Sparta; the gender is feminine.
Tindaria derjungini Gorbunov, 1946, has been recorded from 420 - 2,300 m in the Arctic Ocean, including north of Point Barrow (Bouchet and Waren, 1979: 212-213; see also F.R. Bernard, 1979b: 12-13, Knudsen, 1985:98); Malletia abyssopplaris Clarke, 1960, is a synonym.