Phorcus [SEP] parent taxon
Phorcus
Phorcus is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Trochidae, the top snails.
Distribution.
These marine species are algal grazers in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.
Species.
Species within the genus "Phorcus" include:
- "Phorcus articulatus"
- "Phorcus atratus"
- "Phorcus lineatus"
- "Phorcus mariae"
- "Phorcus mutabilis"
- "Phorcus punctulatus"
- "Phorcus richardi" (Payraudeau, 1826
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of