1938  Marathonitinae Ruzhentsev: 255, 258.
     1940  Marathonitidae.- Ruzhentsev [nom. transl.].
     1952  Marathonitidae.- Ruzhentsev: 76.
     1957  Marathonitinae.- Treatise: L53.
     1960  Marathonitidae.- Ruzhentsev: 225.
     1962  Marathonitidae.- Osnovy: 390.
     1966  Marathonitidae.-Furnish: 279.
     1972  Marathonitidae.-Davis: 81.
       ----    Marathonitinae.-Davis: 81.
     1978  Marathonitidae.- Bogoslovskaia: 53.
     1978  Marathonitinae.- Bogoslovskaia: 56.
     1982  Jilingitinae Liang: 651.
     1987  Marathonitidae.- Glenister & Furnish: 983.
     1988  Marathonitidae.-Glenister & Furnish: 60.
     1999  Marathonitidae.-Leonova: 33.
     2002  Marathonitidae.-Leonova: S75.

[Glenister & Furnish, 1987, p.983]: Marathonitidae are ancestral marathonitaceans that are characterized by tridentate or bidentade external and internal lateral lobes. The conch is smooth-shelled, involute, and subquadrate in section. Mature modifications commonly comprise slight to extreme geniculation (Figure 1.1, 1.3) and terminal constriction, but lappets are unknown. Sutures (Figure 2.1, 2.2) maintain the basic tripartition of the external lateral lobe (L> L2 L1 L2), umbilical lobe (U> U2 U1 U2), and internal lateral lobe (I> I2 I1 I2). The dorsad subdivision of the primary umbilical lobe lies internally near the umbilical seam, so that the suture formula is:
 [Russian] (V1 V1) L2 L1 L2 U2 U1: U2 I2 I1 I2 D

[Bogoslovskaia, 1978,(Marathonitidae), p. 53]: Shell pachyconic to subdiscoconic, involute in all growth stages. Umbilicus narrow to closed. Ornament transverse lamellae and costellae forming a ventral sinus. The suture consists of 20 to 24 lobes. Branches of ventral lobe usually bicuspid, less frequently simple or tricuspid. Three lobes develop from the primary outer lateral lobe; they are basally tricuspid, or one of them (the first) is bicuspid; at the end of phylogenetic development they sometimes become dissected up to the apex of the saddles. Dorsal lobe broad, tripartite, narrow and tricuspid or simple and hastate. Three lobes that are basally bicuspid or simple develop from the inner lateral lobe, and between three and seven lobes from the primary umbilical lobe. Zhigulevskian-Capitanian stages.

[Bogoslovskaia, 1978, (Marathonitinae), p.56]: Shell pachyconic, with narrow umbilicus. Ornament consisting of lamellae forming a narrow ventral sinus. Umbilicus bounded by an umbilical ridge. Suture consisting of 20 to 22 lobes. Branches of ventral lobe  bicuspid or simple. First three outer lateral lobes tricuspid, fourth bicuspid or simple. Dorsal lobe broad and tripartite, narrow and tricuspid or simple and hastate. Inner lateral lobes bicuspid or undissected. Orenburgian-Roudian stages. Distinguished from the Kargalinitinae by the tricuspid outline of the first three outer lateral lobes (in Kargalitinae the first lobe is bicuspid).