Subfamily Puncticuliinae | Rank Genus | |
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Subgenus Gradiconusda Motta, 1991 Similar Conus, Kioconus, Darioconus, Asprella, Pionoconus | ||
Gradiconus is a synonym of a subgenus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the genus Conus, family Conidae, the cone snails and their allies. T
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In the new classification of the family Conidae by Puillandre N., Duda T.F., Meyer C., Olivera B.M. & Bouchet P. (2015), Gradiconus has become a subgenus of Conus: Conus (Dauciconus) Cotton, 1945 (type species: Conus gradatus W. Wood, 1828) represented as Conus Thiele, 1929
Distinguishing characteristics
The Tucker & Tenorio 2009 taxonomy distinguishes Gradiconus 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.
The following species names are recognized as "alternate representations" (see full explanation below) in contrast to the traditional system, which uses the genus Conus for all species in the family:
Significance of "alternative representation"
Prior to 2009, all species within the family Conidae 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. 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 that include the genus Gradiconus 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 still prefer to use the traditional classification, where all species are placed in Conus within the single family Conidae: for example, according to the current 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.
In 2015, in the Journal of Molluscan Studies, Puillandre, Duda, Meyer, Olivera & Bouchet presented a new classification for the old genus Conus. Using 329 species, the authors carried out molecular phylogenetic analyses. The results suggested that the authors should place all cone snails in a single family, Conidae, containing four genera: Conus, Conasprella, Profundiconus and Californiconus. The authors group 85% of all known cone snail species under Conus, They recognize 57 subgenera within Conus, and 11 subgenera within the genus Conasprella.