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Journal Molluscan Studies Advance Access originally published online on August 14, 2008
Journal of Molluscan Studies 2008 74(4):317-329; doi:10.1093/mollus/eyn023
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Malacological Society of London, all rights reserved

Delimitation and phylogenetics of the diverse land-snail family Urocoptidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) based on 28S rRNA sequence data: a reunion with Cerion

Dennis R. Uit De Weerd

Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Ecology, Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA

Correspondence: D.R. Uit de Weerd; e-mail: uitdeweerd{at}gmail.com


  Abstract

The extreme morphological diversity in the land-snail family Urocoptidae has complicated its delimitation from other land-snail families, and has obscured its intra- and interfamilial phylogenetic relationships. Using an independent dataset of 28S rRNA DNA-sequence data, I tested morphology-based hypotheses about these relationships. These data refute the recent placement of the Australian genus Coelocion within the Urocoptidae. Instead, they provide strong support for a North American/circum-Caribbean clade, to be named Urocoptoidea (new superfamily), which consists of the families Urocoptidae and Cerionidae. In all optimal trees (maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony and Bayesian), Cerion is nested among New World Urocoptidae, rather than occupying a basal position as their sister group. Even so, the monophyly of the New World Urocoptidae could not be statistically rejected. Judging from the fossil record, the superfamily Urocoptoidea originated in the southwestern part of the North American continent, where it was widespread by the late Cretaceous. The Antillean Urocoptoidea most likely constitute three separate lineages that may have been carried eastward on the proto-Antillean island arc, which started in the late Cretaceous from a position near the SW North American landmass. Shell characters used in urocoptid classification are re-evaluated in the light of these results, and consequences for taxonomy and implications for evolutionary research are discussed.

Present address: National Natural History Museum Naturalis, PO Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands

Current address: National Natural History Museum Naturalis, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands

(Received 3 December 2007; accepted 5 June 2008)


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