Dispersal of marine benthic invertebrates is typically dependent on the developmental mode of their pelagic larvae, which can be prolonged and based on plankton feeding (planktotrophic), or short and rely on the nutrients from the egg (non‐planktotrophic). The uncommon poecilogonic species can commit to both developmental modes, with remarkable implications for their population genetics, not yet fully investigated. In this stu...

In this study, we delved into the interaction between corallivorous marine gastropods, the muricid Coralliophilinae Chenu, 1859, and their cnidarian food targets. Coralliophilinae is a subfamily of specialised corallivorous caenogastropods that feed by browsing on octocorals or hexacorals. Only sparse information is available on the phylogenetic relationships and the degree of specificity of the trophic relationships within th...

Introduction Host-parasite associations provide very useful models to study adaptive processes. We investigated the interaction between carnivorous marine gastropods, the Ovulidae or egg-cowries, and their cnidarian food targets. Ovulidae (Fleming, 1828), is a family of specialized carnivorous caenogastropods that feed by browsing on octocorals (Anthozoa: Octocorallia: Malacalcyonacea and Scleralcyonacea) or, to a much lesser...

Venomous marine gastropods of the family Conidae are among the most diversified predators in marine realm—in large due to their complex venoms. Besides being a valuable source of bioactive neuropeptides conotoxins , cone-snails venoms are an excellent model for molecular evolution studies, addressing origin of key innovations. However, these studies are handicapped by scarce current knowledge on the tissues involved in venom p...

The Neogastropoda (Mollusca, Gastropoda) encompass more than 15,000 described species of marine predators, including several model organisms in toxinology, embryology and physiology. However, their phylogenetic relationships remain mostly unresolved and their classification unstable. We took advantage of the many mitogenomes published in GenBank to produce a new molecular phylogeny of the neogastropods. We completed the taxon...

The mud snails endemic to the East Atlantic/Mediterranean region (genus Tritia ; subfamily Nassariinae) account for the second highest diversity within the family Nassariidae (Gastropoda: Buccinoidea). In order to understand how the diversity of species, shell morphologies and ecological traits evolved within this genus, a robust phylogenetic framework is needed, yet still unavailable due to high levels of homoplasy in shell m...

Species delimitation in poorly known and diverse taxa is usually performed based on monolocus, DNA ‐barcoding‐like approaches, while multilocus data are often used to test alternative species hypotheses in well‐studied groups. We combined both approaches to delimit species in the Xenuroturris / Iotyrris complex, a group of venomous marine gastropods from the Indo‐Pacific. First, COI sequences were analysed using three methods...

The deep‐sea part of the ‘Papua Niugini Biodiversity Expedition’ surveyed the deep‐sea environments along the coasts of New Guinea Island in the Bismarck Sea, from the Vitiaz Strait to the border between Papua New Guinea ( PNG ) and Irian Jaya. This expedition was a follow‐up of the BIOPAPUA cruise (2010) that gave some of the first insights into the diversity of the deep‐sea fauna of the Bismarck and Solomon Seas for environm...

Connectivity among populations determines the dynamics and evolution of populations, and its assessment is essential in ecology in general and in conservation biology in particular. The robust basis of any ecological study is the accurate delimitation of evolutionary units, such as populations, metapopulations and species. Yet a disconnect still persists between the work of taxonomists describing species as working hypotheses...

Almost all empirical studies in ecology have to identify the species involved in the ecological process under examination. DNA metabarcoding, which couples the principles of DNA barcoding with next generation sequencing technology, provides an opportunity to easily produce large amounts of data on biodiversity. Microbiologists have long used metabarcoding approaches, but use of this technique in the assessment of biodiversity...

Puillandre, N., Meyer, C. P., Bouchet, P. & Olivera, B. M. (2011). Genetic divergence and geographical variation in the deep‐water Conus orbignyi complex (Mollusca: Conoidea). — Zoologica Scripta, 40 , 350–363. The cone snails (family Conidae) are a hyperdiverse lineage of venomous gastropods. Two standard markers, COI and ITS2, were used to define six genetically divergent groups within a subclade of Conidae that includes Con...