Phylogenetic relationships of the family Carditidae (Bivalvia: Archiheterodonta)

PEREZ, DAMIÁN EDUARDO

JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC PALAEONTOLOGY

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2019 vol. 17 p. 1139 - 1175

1477-2019

The Carditidae comprise a highly specious group of bivalves and is one of the more neglected and poorly studied families. This work presents the first phylogenetic study of the whole Carditidae family, using 77 species-level taxa (including fossil and recent terminals) and 144 new morphological characters. Multiple searches were conducted, including discrete and continuous characters and equal and implied weighting. Morphological disparity analysis, phylomorphospace construction and phylogenetic signal analysis were performed from the character matrix. A new systematic scheme is suggested from the results, including the already proposed subfamily Palaeocarditinae, the re-defined Carditinae, Thecaliinae (included within Carditinae in some searches), Carditamerinae (with a reduced diversity) and Venericardiinae (with an extended diversity). The new subfamily Scalaricarditinae and the new clades Eucarditidae (all carditids excluding Palaeocarditinae), Carditida (Carditinae + Thecaliinae + Carditamerinae) and Cyclocardida (Cyclocardia + Pleuromeris + Scalaricarditinae + Miodomeridinae) are proposed. The monophyly of the planicostate and alticostate lineages are confirmed within the Venericardiinae (now formally named Venericorini and Venericardiinae, respectively). The relationships of Palaeocarditinae with other carditids and the origin of the family are discussed, as well as the phylogenetic placement of other carditid genera not included in the analyses. Homoplasy and phylogenetic signal of different morphological characters are also explored and discussed.