Cristataria

PROVENANCE OF CRISTATARIA Our results lend some support to the hypothesis that the Cristataria species ‘came from Balkan stock’ (Bar, 1977). All genera within Medorini, with the exception of Albinaria and Cristataria, are restricted to southeastern Europe. In fact, Albinaria and Cristataria are the easternmost distributed genera within the subfamily Alopiinae (see Nordsieck, 1979). The combined analysis of the ITS and 12S sequences demonstrates that these two genera are nested separately among south-eastern European taxa, implying that they both descended from an ancestor in this area. Although the Cristataria species are found on the African plate, in contrast to all other Medorini, which are located on the Eurasian plate (see Robertson, 1998), their relatively easterly distribution cannot be attributed to tectonic events. Such an explanation would be problematic since the south-eastern European landmasses, where the sister group and clades basal to Cristataria occur, have been widely separated from the Levant since at least the early Cretaceous (Robertson & Dixon, 1984; Dercourt, Ricou & Vrielynck, 1992). This separation predates even the earliest known European fossils of Clausiliidae (see Nordsieck, 2000). Alternatively, it can be hypothesized that the ancestors of Cristataria spread from south-eastern Europe through Asia Minor towards the current generic range. If so, it has to be accepted that they became extinct in Asia Minor, to be replaced there by Albinaria species. This hypothesis implies that the geographical barriers that apparently have separated Albinaria and Cristataria during most of their evolution did not hinder the initial spread of the latter’s ancestors into the genus’ current range. The provenance of Cristataria thus remains enigmatic.Published as part of Uit De Weerd, Dennis R. & Gittenberger, Edmund, 2005, Towards a monophyletic genus Albinaria (Gastropoda, Pulmonata): the first molecular study into the phylogenetic position of eastern Albinaria species, pp. 531-542 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 143 on page 54

Range expansion in the land snail species Carinigera buresi (Clausiliidae): long-distance dispersal by ancient marble transport?

The clausiliid Carinigera buresi has a distribution that, considering its low vagility, is enigmatically disjunct. Carinigera buresi pharsalica occurs in Thessaly in central Greece, over 200 km outside the main range of C. buresi in NE Greece – SW Bulgaria. This range disjunction has led to the hypothesis that in antiquity the ancestors of C. buresi pharsalica were transported by the marble trade from NE Greece to Thessaly. To explore this hypothesis, we included samples from the NE Greek island of Thasos (the only area within the range of C. buresi from which marble was widely transported in antiquity) in a time-calibrated molecular phylogeny of C. buresi. Maximum likelihood (GARLI) and time-calibrated Bayesian (BEAST) analyses of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) from samples collected throughout the range of C. buresi indicate that the ancestral C. buresi pharsalica COI lineage reached Thessaly not from Thasos, but from the NE Greek mainland. This happened between 1,740 and 83,000 yr BP according to the BEAST analyses. Although this time interval does not entirely pre-date the earliest phase of marble transport in the region, we consider this mode of dispersal unlikely for two reasons: (1) our data show that C. buresi pharsalica must be older than estimated on the basis of geological calibration points; (2) our findings indicate that the dispersal event that brought C. buresi pharsalica to Thessaly did not follow ancient marble transport routes. We suggest dispersal via floating objects or aerial dispersal by birds as alternative hypotheses to dispersal by the historic marble trade. Unexpectedly, our phylogenetic analyses also showed the COI haplotype of C. buresi from the city of Kavala to be nested among COI haplotypes from northern Thasos. This suggests possible human-aided dispersal of C. buresi from Thasos to Kavala

Phylogeny of the land snail family Clausiliidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata)

Supplementary data for Uit de Weerd, D. R., & Gittenberger, E. (2013). Phylogeny of the land snail family Clausiliidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 67 (1): 201–216 [these data are inaccessible or missing from the 'supplementary data' accompanying the publication on the journal's website (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2013.01.011)