Description of a new genus and species as the first gastropod species from caves in Iran

2019/12/31 by Yaser Fatemi, Mohammad Javad Malek‐Hosseini, Andrzej Falniowski +3 · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology and Behavior #Marine Biology and Ecology Research #Mollusks and Parasites Studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.4311/2019lsc0105

openalex publication_date 2019/12/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

We report on a new stygobiont truncatelloid gastropod from the sulfidic ponds of Tashan Cave in the Zagros Mountains of Southwest Iran. The hydrogen sulfide habitat resembles those hitherto known for gastropods from sulfide-rich caves in Romania, Italy and Greece. The newly described genus Trogloiranica n. gen. with a newly described T. tashanica n. sp represent the first true stygobiont gastropods found in Iran. The phylogeny inferred from the mitochondrial (cytochrome oxidase subunit I) and the nuclear (histone 3) genomes, as well as anatomical evidence, place T. tashanica in the family Moitessieriidae Bourguignat, 1863. The new genus may represent an evolutionary relict from the post Miocene before the split of the families Moitessieriidae and Cochliopidae Tryon, 1866.

Citations

• The endemic gastropod fauna of Lake Titicaca: correlation between molecular evolution and hydrographic history
• The freshwater snails (Gastropoda) of Iran, with descriptions of two new genera and eight new species
• Pushing short DNA fragments to the limit: Phylogenetic relationships of ‘hydrobioid’ gastropods (Caenogastropoda: Rissooidea)
• MEGA5: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis Using Maximum Likelihood, Evolutionary Distance, and Maximum Parsimony Methods
• MrBayes 3.2: Efficient Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference and Model Choice Across a Large Model Space
• Two new Truncatelloidea species from Melissotrypa Cave in Greece (Caenogastropoda)

Cited by

• List of non-marine molluscs of Iran [wikipedia]