World Congress of Malacology Antwerp ... - Unitas Malacologica

Assisted by a database of worldwide malacological journals and newsletters (assembled by Bieler &
Alan R. Kabat and maintained at the Field Museum of Natural History:
http://emuweb.fieldmuseum.org/iz/journals.php), this presentation reviews the development and
proliferation of such serials and discusses the actual and potential roles they play in species-level
discovery and documentation.
Advances in veneroidean systematics - A status report
Bieler, Rüdiger 1 ; Mikkelsen, Paula M. 2 ; Kappner, Isabella 1 ; Rawlings, Timothy A. 3 ; Sartori,
André F. 4 ; Pintrakoon, Cheewarat 5 ; Healy, John M. 6,1
1. Department of Zoology (Invertebrates), Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S. Lake Shore
Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496, USA,
Email: rbieler@fieldmuseum.org; ikappner@fieldmuseum.org
2. Paleontological Research Institution, 1259 Trumansburg Road, Ithaca, New York 14850 USA,
Email: pmm37@cornell.edu
3. School of Science & Technology, Cape Breton University, 1250 Grand Lake Road, Sydney, Nova
Scotia B1P 6L2, Canada,
Email: Timothy_Rawlings@capebretonu.ca
4. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, UK,
Email: andrefsartori@yahoo.com.br
5. Department of Biology, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand,
Email: cheewarat_p@hotmail.com
6. Biodiversity Program (Malacology), Queensland Museum, PO Box 3000 South Bank, Queensland,
4101, Australia,
Email: John.Healy@qm.qld.gov.au
The largest extant family of Bivalvia, the marine Veneridae with about 800 recognized Recent
species, comprises one of the least understood and most poorly defined molluscan {delete }
taxa, despite including some of the most economically important and abundant bivalves, e.g., quahog,
Pismo clams, and Manila clams. A first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis used 114 taxa to test
monophyly of Veneroidea, Veneridae, and 17 nominal venerid subfamilies, based on morphological
(conchological, anatomical) data and molecular sequences from mitochondrial (16S, COI) and
nuclear (28S, histone 3) genes. Veneridae and Veneroidea were monophyletic in these analyses, but
only six subfamily groups (Dosiniinae, Gemminae, Samarangiinae, Sunettinae, Tapetinae, and
combined Venerinae + Chioninae) found significant support, and few morphological synapomorphies
were identified. Former families Petricolidae and Turtoniidae were also reduced to subfamilies within
Veneridae and recognized as members with derived or neotenous morphologies, respectively. A
further morphological and molecular study of the Venerinae/Chioninae clade provided increased
resolution within (and distinction between) these previously synonymized subfamilies. Various
feature-rich character complexes (such as sperm ultrastructure, adult byssal apparatus, and siphonal
morphology) are discussed in the context of the new phylogenetic hypotheses.
[Supported by NSF PEET DEB-9978119]
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