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Classification, Diversity & Phylogeny of Gastropods
Gastropods are by far the largest class of Mollusca, the most diverse phylum of animals next to arthropods. Several projects have been initiated by Dr Winston Ponder to investigate the classification, diversity and phylogeny of gastropods. Some of these are described on the following pages.
Gastropod phylogeny
Despite being such a large and conspicuous group, gastropods are surprisingly under-utilized in evolutionary investigations. This project is investigating the evolution and relationships of gastropods - the largest group of molluscs which contains all limpets, slugs and snails. Recent studies have demonstrated that the widely accepted understanding of gastropod relationships is severely flawed and this program is working towards providing a testable hypothesis of gastropod phylogeny.
The program was funded by ARC for three years and is being done in collaboration with Dr. D. Colgan (Australian Museum), Prof. D. Lindberg at the University of California, Berkeley, Prof. G. Haszprunar, at the Zoological Museum and University of München, Germany and Dr J. Healy, University of Queensland. Several others are also involved.
Three sources of data were used - morphological (anatomy), ultrastructural (fine detail of cells and tissues using the Transmission Electron Microscope and the Scanning Electron Microscope) and molecular (the structure of certain genes).
Related Projects
Phylogeny of Cerithioidean Snails
Phylogeny of Caenogastropods
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