With about 800 Recent species, 'miters' are a widely distributed group of tropical and subtropical gastropods that are most diverse in the Indo-West Pacific. They include the two families Mitridae and Costellariidae, similar in shell morphology and traditionally treated as close relatives. Some genera of deep-water Ptychatractidae and Volutomitridae are close to miters in shell morphology, and the term 'mitriform gastropods' has been introduced to refer to Mitridae, Costellariidae, and this assortment of convergent forms. The present study aimed at the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships of mitriform gastropods based on representative taxon sampling. Four genetic markers [cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI), 16S and 12S rRNA mitochondrial genes,... |