Meeting Abstract

6-7  Thursday, Jan. 5 09:30 – 09:45  The slug within the bivalve: Reconciliation of shell-based taxonomy and molecular data in Juliidae (Heterobranchia: Sacoglossa) MCCARTHY, JB*; VENDETTI, JE; KRUG, PJ; VALDéS, ÁA; California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Natural History Museum of Los Angeles county; California State University, Los Angeles; California State Polytechnic University, Pomona jbmccarthy1001@gmail.com

Juliidae is a member of the order Sacoglossa, a clade of herbivorous heterobranch gastropods. Juliidae has a complex taxonomic history derived from the fact that these gastropods have bivalve shells. The current taxonomy of Juliidae is largely based on shell morphological traits and to a certain extent on internal and anatomical traits, such as radula and reproductive anatomy. Based on these data, Juliidae is considered to have two extant genera, Berthelinia and Julia, both with pan-tropical distributions. For this study a species-level molecular phylogeny of Juliidae has been produced using a combination of three genes, two mitochondrial (CO1, 16S), and one nuclear (H3). Based on Recent shells and fossil shells from the literature, a principal component analysis (PCA) was produced using geometric morphometric techniques to quantify and compare the shell morphologies. Based on preliminary molecular results, two clades are resolved agreeing with the two extant genera. The morphometric data will be integrated with the molecular phylogeny using comparative methodologies.