Conasprella Explained

Conasprella is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Conidae, the cone snails and their allies.[1] This genus was formerly (February 2015) treated by some experts as a member of the family Conilithidae and as an "alternative representation" of this group of species.

Distinguishing characteristics

The Tucker & Tenorio 2009 taxonomy distinguishes Conasprella from Conus in the following ways:[2]

Shell characters (living and fossil species)

The basic shell shape is conical to elongated conical, has a deep anal notch on the shoulder, a smooth periostracum and a small operculum. The shoulder of the shell is usually nodulose and the protoconch is usually multispiral. Markings often include the presence of tents except for black or white color variants, with the absence of spiral lines of minute tents and textile bars.

Radular tooth (not known for fossil species)

The radula has an elongated anterior section with serrations and a large exposed terminating cusp, a non-obvious waist, blade is either small or absent and has a short barb, and lacks a basal spur.

Geographical distribution

These species are found in the Indo-Pacific region.

Feeding habits

These species eat other gastropods including cones.

Shell characters (living and fossil species)

The protoconch is multispiral with 2.5 whorls, the shell is conical in shape, the spire is elevated, the early whorls have nodules at the periphery. The body whorl has evenly spaced cords or sulci that reach the midbody to the shoulder, and the whorls may have cords on top. The anterior notch is absent and the anal notch is deep. The periostracum is smooth, and the operculum is small.

Radular tooth (not known for fossil species)

The blade is short and covers one-third of the anterior section of the radular tooth. The posterior blade is absent, a basal spur is present, and the barb is short. A shaft fold and interior posterior fold is present, however the shaft fold is difficult to detect.

Geographical distribution

These species are found throughout the Indo-Pacific region.

Feeding habits

These species are presumed to be vermivorous (meaning that they prey on marine worms) based upon their radular morphology.

Species list

This list of species is based on the information in the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) list. Species within the genus Conasprella include:

According to the 2014 taxonomy, the following species include the following subgenera: Boucheticonus, Coltroconus, Conasprella, Dalliconus, Endemoconus, Fusiconus, Kohniconus, Lilliconus, Parviconus, Pseudoconorbis, and Ximenoconus, as well as Conasprella delessertii (Récluz, 1843), a species "incertae sedes".[3] These subgenera are accepted and are considered alternative representations.


The following species were brought into synonymy:

List of synonyms of the genus Conasprella

Significance of "alternative representation"

Prior to 2009, all cone species were placed within the family Conidae and were placed in one genus, Conus. In 2009 however, J.K. Tucker and M.J. Tenorio proposed a classification system for the over 600 recognized species that were in the family. Their classification proposed 3 distinct families and 82 genera for the living species of cone snails, including the family Conilithidae. This classification was based upon shell morphology, radular differences, anatomy, physiology, cladistics, with comparisons to molecular (DNA) studies. Published accounts of genera within the Conidae (or Conilithidae) that include the genus Conasprella include J.K. Tucker & M.J. Tenorio (2009), and Bouchet et al. (2011).[4]

Testing in order to try to understand the molecular phylogeny of the Conidae was initially begun by Christopher Meyer and Alan Kohn,[5] and is continuing, particularly with the advent of nuclear DNA testing in addition to mDNA testing.

However, in 2011, some experts preferred to use the traditional classification, where all species are placed in Conus within the single family Conidae: for example, according to the November 2011 version of the World Register of Marine Species, all species within the family Conidae are in the genus Conus. The binomial names of species in the 82 cone snail genera listed in Tucker & Tenorio 2009 are recognized by the World Register of Marine Species as "alternative representations."[6] Debate within the scientific community regarding this issue continues, and additional molecular phylogeny studies are being carried out in an attempt to clarify the issue.[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]

All this has been superseded in 2015 by the new classification of the Conidae

References

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Bouchet, P. (2015). Conasprella. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=428971 on 2015-02-28
  2. Tucker J.K. & Tenorio M.J. (2009), Systematic Classification of Recent and Fossil Conoidean Gastropods, ConchBooks, Hankenheim, Germany, 295 pp.
  3. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyu055 Puillandre N., Duda T.F., Meyer C., Olivera B.M. & Bouchet P. (2015). One, four or 100 genera? A new classification of the cone snails. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 81: 1-23
  4. Bouchet P., Kantor Yu.I., Sysoev A. & Puillandre N. (2011). "A new operational classification of the Conoidea". Journal of Molluscan Studies 77: 273-308.
  5. Interview of Professor Alan Kohn, Professor Emeritus, Zoology Web site: SEASHELL COLLECTOR | Interview of Pr Alan Kohn, Professor Emeritus, Zoology . 2011-12-04 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120227030848/http://www.seashell-collector.com/articles/interviews/2009-kohn.html . 2012-02-27 .
  6. http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=14107 Classification: Traditionally, all cone shells have been included in the Linnaean genus Conus. Tucker & Tenorio (2009) have recently proposed an alternative shell- and radula-based classification that recognizes 4 families and 80 genera of cones. In WoRMS, we currently still recognize a single family Conidae (following Puillandre et al. 2011), but Tucker & Tenorio's 80 genera classification is presented as "alternative representation". [P. Bouchet, 14 Aug. 2011]
  7. C.M.L. Afonso & M.J. Tenorio (August 2011), A new, distinct endemic Africonus species (Gastropoda, Conidae) from Sao Vicente Island, Cape Verde Archipelago, West Africa, Gloria Maris 50(5): 124-135
  8. P. Bouchet, Yu I. Kantor, A. Sysoev, and N. Puillandre (March 2011), A New Operational Classification of the Conoidea, Journal of Molluscan Studies 77:273-308, at p. 275.
  9. N. Puillandre, E. Strong, P. Bouchet, M. Boisselier, V. Couloux, & S. Samadi (2009), Identifying gastropod spawn from DNA barcodes: possible but not yet practicable, Molecular Ecology Resources 9:1311-1321.
  10. P.K. Bandyopadhyay, B.J. Stevenson, J.P. Ownby, M.T. Cady, M. Watkins, & B. Olivera (2008), The mitochondrial genome of Conus textile, coxI-conII intergenic sequences and conoidean evolution. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 46: 215-223.
  11. S.T. Williams & T.F. Duda, Jr. (2008), Did tectonic activity stimulate Oligo-Miocene speciation in the Indo-West Pacific? Evolution 62:1618-1634.
  12. R.L. Cunha, R. Castilho, L. Ruber, & R. Zardoya (2005), Patterns of cladogenesis in the venomous marine gastropod genus Conus from the Cape Verde Islands Systematic Biology 54(4):634-650.
  13. T.F. Duda, Jr. & A.J. Kohn (2005), Species-level phylogeography and evolutionary history of the hyperdiverse marine gastropod genus Conus, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34:257-272.
  14. T.F. Duda, Jr. & E. Rolan (2005), Explosive radiation of Cape Verde Conus, a marine species flock, Molecular Ecology 14:267-272.
  15. B. Vallejo, Jr. (2005), Inferring the mode of speciation in the Indo-West Pacific Conus (Gastropoda: Conidae), Journal of Biogeography 32:1429-1439.
  16. Tucker, J. K. & Stahlschmidt, P. (2010) A second species of Pseudoconorbis (Gastropoda: Conoidea) from India. Miscellanea Malacologica 4(3):31-34.
  17. Tucker, J. K., Tenorio, M. J. & Stahlschmidt, P. (2011) The genus Benthofascis (Gastropoda: Conoidea): a revision with descriptions of new species. Zootaxa 2796:1-14.
  18. Puillandre N., Meyer C.P., Bouchet P., and Olivera B.M. (2011), Genetic divergence and geographical variation in the deep-water Conus orbignyi complex (Mollusca: Conoidea), Zoologica Scripta 40(4) 350-363.
  19. Tucker, J. K. & Tenorio, M. J. (2011) New species of Gradiconus and Kohniconus from the western Atlantic (Gastropoda: Conoidea: Conidae, Conilithidae). Miscellanea Malacologica 5(1):1-16.
  20. Petuch, E. J. & Sargent, D. M. (2011) New species of Conidae and Conilithidae (Gastropoda) from the tropical Americas and Philippines. With notes on some poorly-known Floridian species. Visaya 3(3):116-137.
  21. Petuch & Drolshage (2011) Compendium of Florida Fossil Shells, Volume 1 MDM Publications, Wellington, FL., 432 pp.

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