Pleuroceridae, common name pleurocerids, is a family of small to medium-sized freshwater snails, aquatic gilled gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Cerithioidea.These snails have an operculum and typically a robust high-spired shell.

Pleuroceridae
Io fluvialis
Athearnia anthonyi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Caenogastropoda
Superfamily: Cerithioidea
Family: Pleuroceridae
Fischer, 1885
Diversity[1][2]
About 150 extant species

Reproduction is iteroparous, and juvenile snails emerge from eggs laid on a firm surface by a gonochoristic female. There is no veliger stage.

Evolution

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There is very high level of mitochondrial heterogeneity in apparent species of Pleuroceridae (highest among gastropods, also with Semisulcospiridae), that has not been sufficiently explained yet as of 2015.[3] However, it has been suggested that this may be due to pleurocerids having very poor dispersal abilities, allowing even slightly separated populations to see great genetic divergence.[4]

Populations of the pleurocerid species in the Old Appalachians (Virginia south to Georgia) are present on both sides of the Eastern Continental Divide, but there is no difference in the extent of intrapopulation heterogeneity on either side, and there is no evidence for cryptic speciation on either side either. Given the age of the Appalachians, it has been suggested that these populations may be extremely ancient, dating back to the Paleozoic when the initial Appalachian orogeny separated them, to the extent that any geographic signal in the test gene for the divergence estimates has been lost. Levels of genetic divergence appear to be lower in the modern center for pleurocerid diversity (the Alabama and Coosa river systems) than in the Old Appalachians, indicating that the latter may represent the ancestral origin of pleurocerids.[4]

Distribution

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As currently defined, this family is confined entirely to eastern North American fresh waters. Similar snails formerly classified with Pleuroceridae, but now assigned to other families are widespread in temperate and tropical parts of Southern and Eastern Asia,[citation needed] and Africa.[citation needed] Most require unpolluted rivers and streams, but a few are adapted to living in lakes or reservoirs.

Taxonomy

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2005 taxonomy

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The following two subfamilies have been recognized in the taxonomy of Bouchet & Rocroi (2005):[5]

  • Pleurocerinae P. Fischer, 1885 - synonyms: Ceriphasiinae Gill, 1863; Strepomatidae Haldeman, 1864; Ellipstomatidae Hannibal, 1912; Gyrotominae Hannibal, 1912; Anaplocamidae Dall, 1921
  • Semisulcospirinae Morrison, 1952 - synonym: Jugidae Starobogatov, Prozorova, Bogatov & Sayenko, 2004 (n.a.)

2009 taxonomy

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Subfamily Semisulcospirinae within Pleuroceridae was elevated to family level Semisulcospiridae by Strong & Köhler (2009).[6]

Genera

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Genera within the family Pleuroceridae are organized in the one subfamily only since 2009 and they include:

Pleurocerinae

References

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  1. ^ Strong E. E., Gargominy O., Ponder W. F. & Bouchet P. (2008). "Global Diversity of Gastropods (Gastropoda; Mollusca) in Freshwater". Hydrobiologia 595: 149-166. hdl:10088/7390 doi:10.1007/s10750-007-9012-6.
  2. ^ Strong E. E., Colgan D. J., Healy J. M., Lydeard C., Ponder W. F. & Glaubrecht M. (2011). "Phylogeny of the gastropod superfamily Cerithioidea using morphology and molecules". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 162(1): 43-89. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00670.x.
  3. ^ Whelan N. V. & Strong E. E. (2015). "Morphology, molecules and taxonomy: extreme incongruence in pleurocerids (Gastropoda, Cerithioidea, Pleuroceridae)". Zoologica Scripta> 26 pp. doi:10.1111/zsc.12139.
  4. ^ a b Dillon, Robert T.; Robinson, John D. (2009). "The snails the dinosaurs saw: are the pleurocerid populations of the Older Appalachians a relict of the Paleozoic Era?". Journal of the North American Benthological Society. 28 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1899/08-034.1. ISSN 0887-3593. S2CID 85340338.
  5. ^ a b Bouchet, Philippe; Rocroi, Jean-Pierre; Frýda, Jiri; Hausdorf, Bernard; Ponder, Winston; Valdés, Ángel & Warén, Anders (2005). "Classification and nomenclator of gastropod families". Malacologia. 47 (1–2). Hackenheim, Germany: ConchBooks: 1–397. ISBN 3-925919-72-4. ISSN 0076-2997.
  6. ^ Strong E. & Köhler F. (2009). "Morphological and molecular analysis of "Melania" jacqueti Dautzenberg & Fischer, 1906: from anonymous orphan to critical basal offshoot of the Semisulcospiridae (Gastropoda: Cerithioidea)". Zoologica Scripta 38(5): 483-502. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2008.00385.x

Further reading

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