Overview
Brief Summary
Historical importance
Ecology
Local Distribution and Habitats
Biogeographical Distribution
Life History
Behaviour
Cyclicity
Evolution & Systematics
Systematics or Phylogenetics
Morphology and Physiology
External Morphology
Anatomy
Conservation
Threats
Wikipedia
References & More Information
Bibliographies | Systematics or Phylogenetics
Cypraea tigris is classified as a true cowry and falls under the family Cypraeidae, subfamily Cypraeinae and within the clade Caenogastropoda (Meyer 2003). Together with the Ovulidae, it belongs to the superfamily Cypraeoidea.
Below is a phylogenetic framework of the subfamily Cypraeinae adapted from Meyer (2003). This contains five genera, Muracypraea, Cypraea, Macrocypraea, Leporicypraea and Mauritia. It shows Cypraea and Macrocypraea as a sister group to the clade, both of which contais members with similar mantle characteristics and radular morphology. The five genera in this clade contain 27 evolutionary significant units, Cypraea itself containing three. Two within the Indo-West Pacific species C. tigris and the other being the endemic Red Sea species C. pantherina. Although this relationship is poorly support and ambiguous and Meyer (2003) suggest C. pantherina may be sister to the Indian cluster. C. tigris itself is partitioned into two haplotype clusters within the Indo-West Pacific, that is the Pacific Basin clade and the Indian Basin clade.
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