Interrelationships of Major Gastropod Clades: Mathildidae and the 'Lower Heterobranchs' (Mollusca)

9318231只贝氏腹足动物(蜗牛和鼻涕)是软体动物中最大的一类，其数量仅次于节肢动物(昆虫、螃蟹等)。在生物物种多样性方面。腹足类作为食物(蜗牛、蜗牛、贝壳等)具有重要作用。作为农作物害虫，作为人类和农场动物疾病(血吸虫、吸虫)的媒介，以及作为世界海洋造礁社区的重要组成部分。然而，不同种类蜗牛之间的相互关系仍然不清楚。目前的研究集中在一组海洋腹足类，Mathildidae科。更好地了解这一形态上的“中间”群体的生物学知识，可能有助于深入了解主要螺类(如陆螺和海螺)之间的相互关系。这些知识反过来将为各种科学和应用领域提供关键信息。例如，某些群体之间的密切关系可能表明这些生物体存在类似的生化特性，这一知识可能有助于在药物研究中寻找“新的”生化成分。该项目将涉及实地收集、博物馆藏品中现有的活物种和化石材料的研究、解剖学研究、组织学、扫描电子显微镜和计算机辅助三维形态建模。%这项研究将阐明腹足类(蜗牛、鼻涕等)之间更高级别的关系。这种信息可能有助于识别被发现具有潜在药用价值的化学物质的生物体的亲属。***

9318231 BIELER Gastropods (snails and slugs) are the largest group of mollusks, which in turn are only outnumbered by arthropods (insects, crabs, etc.) in living species diversity. Gastropods play important roles as food items (escargot, abolone, conch, etc.) as crop pests, as vectors for human and farm animal diseases (schistosoma, flukes), and as important elements of the reef building community in the world's oceans. However, the interrelationships of the various groups of snails have remained unclear. The present study concentrates on a group of marine gastropods, the family Mathildidae. Better biological knowledge of this morphologically "intermediate" group may provide insight into how the major snail groups (e.g. land snails and sea slugs) are related to one another. This knowledge, in turn, will provide key information for a variety of scientific and applied fields. For instance, close relationship of certain groups may suggest the presence of similar biochemical properties of these organisms, a knowledge that can be useful in the search for "new" biochemical components in drug research. The project will involve field collecting, studies of available material of living and fossil species in museum collections, anatomical studies, histology, scanning electron microscopy, and computer-assisted modelling of three dimensional morphologies. %%% This study will clarify higher level relationships among gastropods (snails, slugs, etc.). Such informnation could be of utility in identifying relatives of organisms found to have chemicals of potential pharmaceutical importance. ***