The family Cardiliidae has been scarcely studied. It was historically placed in the superfamily Mactroidea. Members of this family are characterized by a cordiform shell with a typical mactrid hinge, posterior adductor muscle placed into a myophore and three ornamental areas on the external surface of the shell. Six extant and 14 exclusively fossil species have been previously mentioned in the literature as belonging to the genus Cardilia. The geographical distribution, stratigraphic range, type material and type locality of each extant and fossil species are provided. In this work, four extant species and 11 exclusively fossil species belonging to the genus Cardilia are recognized. Extant species are from the western Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and eastern Atlantic Ocean, while fossil taxa are recorded from deposits of middle Eocene to late Pliocene in Europe and Asia,. One of them is formally described herein as Cardilia edwardsi new species.