Geometric morphometrics reveal that Conus anabathrum Crosse, 1865 (Neogastropoda: Conidae) should be an accepted species

Abstract

In 2022, the accepted name for a marine gastropod species from Florida until then known as Conus an- abathrum Crosse, 1865, was replaced by C. floridanus Gabb, 1869. The main argument was that the type of C. anabathrum , a specimen with no type locality in the description, actually represents the eastern Pacific species C. scalaris Valenciennes, 1832. This allocation of the type of C. anabathrum to an eastern Pacific taxon was based on several factors, with shell shape as the main determinant. We demonstrate via geometric mor- phometrics that the type of C. anabathrum actually falls outside the morphospace of C. scalaris , belonging instead to the morphospace of the Floridian taxon. We also discuss other arguments presented to assign the type of C. anabathrum to the eastern Pacific species. These discussions and our geometric morphometric an- alytical results demonstrate that the type of C. anabathrum actually represents the Floridian species, and that C. anabathrum should be the accepted name.