Journal article

Publication year: 2016

Pages: 129-136

Journal: Journal of Molluscan Studies

Volume number: 82

Issue number: 1

ISSN: 0260-1230

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyv040

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Abstract: 
A highly derived, limpet-like freshwater gastropod of the genus Delminiella was found in Miocene deposits of the palaeo-lake Lavant in the intramontane Alpine Lavant Valley in Austria. This Early Miocene genus was known so far only from several lakes of the Dinaride Lake System in southeastern Europe, where it evolved probably from lymnaeid ancestors. These two areas were separated during the late Early and early Middle Miocene by a seaway of the Paratethys Sea and no hydrological connection existed to allow migration of freshwater organisms. Although sweepstakes routes are a likely explanation for the dispersal across the marine barrier, the vector of dispersal remains unknown. The unexpected disjunct distribution of the supposedly endemic genus is a salutory example of the uncertainty in calculating endemism rates in palaeo-lakes. Small lakes are geologically underrepresented and our biogeographic knowledge might be biased by the rich fossil record of long-lived palaeo-lakes. Based on protoconch data, the placement of Delminiella in the planorboid family Clivunellidae is rejected and an affiliation with the Lymnaeoidea is suggested. Delminiella norica is introduced as a new species.

Harvard Citation style: Harzhauser, M., Mandic, O., Neubauer, T., Georgopoulou, E. and Hassler, A. (2016) Disjunct distribution of the Miocene limpet-like freshwater gastropod genus Delminiella, Journal of Molluscan Studies, 82(1), pp. 129-136. https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyv040

APA Citation style: Harzhauser, M., Mandic, O., Neubauer, T., Georgopoulou, E., & Hassler, A. (2016). Disjunct distribution of the Miocene limpet-like freshwater gastropod genus Delminiella. Journal of Molluscan Studies. 82(1), 129-136. https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyv040