Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of the living Pleurotomariidae (Vetigastropoda), with the description of a new genus

Abstract

The once diverse family Pleurotomariidae had a widespread global distribution spanning shallow-water faunas throughout the Mesozoic but is presently known only from bathyal habitats along the western margins of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans at temperate and tropical latitudes. We evaluate the relationships among surviving lineages of Pleurotomariidae using partial sequences of two mitochondrial genes and three nuclear genes for 22 of the 45 named Recent species-level taxa for which sequence data were available for two or more genes. Phylogenetic analyses partition these species among five lineages, including the new genus Bouchetitrochus n. gen. that is described herein. Of the five lineages, two are present in both the western Atlantic and the western Indo-Pacific Oceans, one is endemic to the western Atlantic and two are endemic to the western Indo-Pacific.