BACKGROUND DNA barcoding has recently been proposed as a promising tool for the rapid species identification in a wide range of animal taxa. Two broad methods (distance and monophyly-based methods) have been used. One method is based on degree of DNA sequence variation within and between species while another method requires the recovery of species as discrete clades (monophyly) on a phylogenet...

The genus Granulina (type species Plasmoporella granulosa Bondarenko, 1958, by original designation) was established by Leleshus (1975: 7) for a distinctive heliolitoid genus from the Upper Ordovician of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. However, the name Granulina Jousseaume, 1888 (p. 191), which designates a genus of a living molluscs (Gastropoda: Neogastropoda: Marginellidae: Granulininae), has pri...

Fisheries and scientific investigations of the recently discovered deep-water coral province south of Malta sampled living specimens of two deep-water Coralliophilinae intimately associated with Lophelia-Madrepora coral banks. The species are ‘Coralliophila’ richardi (Fischer P., 1882) and Babelomurex sentix (Bayer, 1971). A third coralliophilinid ‘Coralliophila’ squamosa (Bivona Ant. in Bivona...

The state of the art of turrid (=Turridae s. l.) systematics is that shells - when they include the protoconch - are reliable species-level identifiers, but inadequate proxies for allocation to genera or subfamilies. Generally, the radula is used for allocation to a (sub)family, but the hypothesis that the radula is a more adequate proxy than the shell for relationships has not yet been tested ...

The extensive Late Cretaceous - Early Paleogene sedimentary succession of Seymour Island, N.E. Antarctic Peninsula offers an unparalleled opportunity to examine the evolutionary origins of a modern polar marine fauna. Some 38 modern Southern Ocean molluscan genera (26 gastropods and 12 bivalves), representing approximately 18% of the total modern benthic molluscan fauna, can now be traced back ...

Caenogastropoda is the dominant group of marine gastropods in terms of species numbers, diversity of habit and habitat and ecological importance. This paper reports the first comprehensive multi-gene phylogenetic study of the group. Data were collected from up to six genes comprising parts of 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA (five segments), 12S rRNA, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, histone H3 and elongation...