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closePhylogeny?
Posted by CGlaspie on 23 Jan 2013 at 21:41 GMT
Do you have any sense of what characters were used to derive the taxonomy of "Galeommatoidea"? Is it possible that there is a strong correlation between those morphological characters and lifestyle that may have influenced your conclusions?
RE: Phylogeny?
Jingchun replied to CGlaspie on 24 Jan 2013 at 18:38 GMT
The superfamily is characterized by small, thin shells, reflective mantles (often have specialized papillae, tentacles or glands), anterior inhalant pallial opening and posterior exhalant opening, etc. Overall, the morphological disparity in this group seems quite high. From my personal experience, I didn't find any particular traits that are only associated with commensals or free-living taxa. Both group has a spectrum of different morphologies. But some quantitative analyses on the trait evolution of this superfamily will probably tell us more.