Many families are endemic to these habitats, such as Peltospiridae, Lepetodrilidae and Neolepetopsidae ( Sasaki et al., 2010). Gastropod molluscs are a major component of biodiversity in chemosynthetic ecosystems, such as hydrothermal vents, in terms of both species richness and abundance ( Woff, 2005 Chapman et al., 2019). Many named species have been categorized formally as threatened or endangered owing to extinction risks from deep-sea mining, but those species without names cannot be protected effectively ( Sigwart et al., 2019). Vents in the western Indian Ocean, eyed by multiple nations for the extraction of massive sulfide deposits on the seafloor, still contain a wealth of undescribed species ( Copley et al., 2016 Zhou et al., 2018 Sun et al., 2020). Nevertheless, there is a global bias in studying those systems close to the developed counties in the Northern Hemisphere, leaving sites in the Southern Hemisphere and Indian Ocean poorly understood, especially in terms of biodiversity ( Thaler & Amon, 2019). This is driven, in part, by the high endemicity of animals living in these habitats ( Wolff, 2005 Chapman et al., 2019) attributable to their вЂextremeвЂ™ environmental conditions requiring special adaptations ( Van Dover, 2000). Since the discovery of hydrothermal vents on the GalГЎpagos Rift in 1977 ( Corliss et al., 1979), chemosynthesis-based ecosystems have been a centre of focus in deep-sea explorations around the world. Our results provide new insights into this enigmatic family and highlight the importance of surveying the vent periphery, especially given that inactive vents are being eyed as a replacement for active ones in deep-sea mining.Дeep sea, deep, sea vents, Mollusca, molecular phylogeny Introduction Eulepetopsis appears to be adapted to active vents, and its derived position compared with Paralepetopsis indicates a possible вЂstepping-stoneвЂ™ evolutionary pathway from seeps and organic falls to vents. These are the first molecular data available for Neolepetopsis, confirming that the three genera are genetically distinct. The molecular phylogeny of Patellogastropoda, reconstructed using the COI gene, supported the monophyly of Neolepetopsidae. crystallina is probably attributable to bias in sampling effort at inactive chimneys. Given that Neolepetopsis appears to specialize on inactive sulfide deposits, the apparent wider distribution of E. from the Southwest Indian Ridge and Neolepetopsis prismatica sp. found across three ridges, Е Neolepetopsis ardua sp. Here, we describe three new species from Indian Ocean vents, namely Eulepetopsis crystallina sp. It is a small and little-studied family with about a dozen species in three genera, namely Eulepetopsis, Neolepetopsis and Paralepetopsis, and all named species were from the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans. Neolepetopsidae is a family of true limpets restricted to deep-sea chemosynthesis-based ecosystems.

Prismatica submission