The neogastropod genus Pyropsis Conrad, 1860 (family Pyropsidae Stephenson, 1941) is recognized for the first time from Upper Cretaceous shallow-marine siliciclastic rocks in the region extending from Vancouver Island, British Columbia southward to southern California. Four new species were detected: Pyropsis aldersoni (earliest Coniacian, southern California), Pyropsis californica (early Coniacian, northern California), Pyropsis louellae (late Coniacian or early Santonian, northern California), and Pyropsis grahami (late early Campanian, Vancouver Island).

A critical review of the global reports of Pyropsis, a genus that has been commonly confused with other genera (especially Tudicla Röding, 1798), establishes that Pyropsis had an amphitropical distribution and lived in warm-temperate waters adjacent to a broad tropical realm. It is rare to uncommon wherever found, and its geologic range is middle Cenomanian to an age near the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary (probably earliest Paleocene). It was moderately widespread before the Maastrichtian but was predominantly restricted to the New World during the Maastrichtian.