Kingdom Animalia Clade Caenogastropoda Clade Neogastropoda Phylum Mollusca | Class Gastropoda Clade Hypsogastropoda Superfamily Conoidea Rank Genus | |
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Similar Dauciconus, Jaspidiconus, Conus, Kohniconus, Conasprella jaspidea | ||
Conasprella is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Conidae, the cone snails and their allies. This genus was formerly (February 2015) treated by some experts as a member of the family Conilithidae and as an "alternative representation" of this group of species.
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Distinguishing characteristics
The Tucker & Tenorio 2009 taxonomy distinguishes Conasprella from Conus in the following ways:
Species list
This list of species is based on the information in the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) list. Species within the genus Conasprella include:
According to the 2014 taxonomy, the following species include the following subgenera: Boucheticonus, Coltroconus, Conasprella, Dalliconus, Endemoconus, Fusiconus, Kohniconus, Lilliconus, Parviconus, Pseudoconorbis, and Ximenoconus, as well as Conasprella delessertii (Récluz, 1843), a species "incertae sedes". These subgenera are accepted and are considered alternative representations.
List of synonyms of the genus Conasprella
Significance of "alternative representation"
Prior to 2009, all cone species were placed within the family Conidae and were placed in one genus, Conus. In 2009 however, J.K. Tucker and M.J. Tenorio proposed a classification system for the over 600 recognized species that were in the family. Their classification proposed 3 distinct families and 82 genera for the living species of cone snails, including the family Conilithidae. This classification was based upon shell morphology, radular differences, anatomy, physiology, cladistics, with comparisons to molecular (DNA) studies. Published accounts of genera within the Conidae (or Conilithidae) that include the genus Conasprella include J.K. Tucker & M.J. Tenorio (2009), and Bouchet et al. (2011).
Testing in order to try to understand the molecular phylogeny of the Conidae was initially begun by Christopher Meyer and Alan Kohn, and is continuing, particularly with the advent of nuclear DNA testing in addition to mDNA testing.
However, in 2011, some experts preferred to use the traditional classification, where all species are placed in Conus within the single family Conidae: for example, according to the November 2011 version of the World Register of Marine Species, all species within the family Conidae are in the genus Conus. The binomial names of species in the 82 cone snail genera listed in Tucker & Tenorio 2009 are recognized by the World Register of Marine Species as "alternative representations." Debate within the scientific community regarding this issue continues, and additional molecular phylogeny studies are being carried out in an attempt to clarify the issue.
All this has been superseded in 2015 by the new classification of the Conidae