Biogeography and systematics of the land snails of the Caucasus Region

The Caucasus region is one of the 25 most species-rich regions in the world, whichis seriously threatened by environmental change. More than 300 species of land snails are known from this region, 66% of which are endemic. We are investigating the distribution of this diversity and its origins. 

We have catalogued the material in the most important collections in the museums of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yerevan, Tbilisi, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Warsaw and Zurich and supplemented it with additional material obtained during expeditions to Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. We are systematically revising problematic groups and reconstructing their evolutionary and biogeographical history using molecular phylogenetic and biogeographical analyses. We will produce an atlas showing the distribution of all land snail species in the Caucasus region. We will investigate the factors that influence speciation and the distribution of biodiversity. Land snails can serve as a model group to identify regions that are also important for the conservation of endemic species of other animal and plant groups.

Project results

Neiber, M. T., Walther, F., Kijashko, P. V., Mumladze, L. & Hausdorf, B. 2022. The role of Anatolia in the emergence of the Caucasian biodiversity hotspot using the example of the land snail group Oxychilus. Cladistics, 38: 83-102.

Neiber, M. T., & Hausdorf, B. 2022. Origin of the introduced German population of Micropontica caucasica (A. Schmidt, 1868) and phylogenetic relationships within the genus (Gastropoda: Clausiliidae). Archiv Molluskenkde., 151: 141-152.

Korábek, O., Balashov, I., Neiber, M. T., Walther, F., & Hausdorf, B. 2023. The Caucasus is neither a cradle nor a museum of the diversity of the land snail genus Helix (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora, Helicidae), while the Crimea harbours an ancient Helix lineage. Zoosystem. Evolution, 99: 535-543.