Meeting Abstract
The nudibranch family Tritoniidae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) is an enigmatic group with members that are cryptic and mimic the shape and color of the soft corals on which they feed. This leads to common misidentification and misplacement of species, impacting the knowledge and understanding of Opisthobranch systematics Previous studies using both molecular and morphological characters have claimed the family is monophyletic; however, this hypothesis is weakly supported. We are expanding on those previous studies by increasing taxon sampling and using four gene fragments- two mitochondrial (16S and COI) and two nuclear (H3 and 28S). We have reconstructed a robust molecular phylogeny using maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses that depicts the evolutionary relationships of the group. Using this molecular data set we performed an ancestral biogeographic reconstruction to determine the most probable geographic origin of the family as well the major clades within the group. Understanding the placement of several key species as well as the familial placement within the broader Cladobranchia and their origins is important to understanding landmark evolutionary events and dispersal trends.
