Time‐Calibrated Phylogeny of River Snails (Gastropoda: Viviparidae) Reveals a New Viviparid Genus With a “Lazarus Species”

ABSTRACT The family Viviparidae is a group of large freshwater snails with a nearly global distribution and ancient origination from the Middle Jurassic age. Here we report the rediscovery of an extant population of a freshwater snail species of the family Viviparidae, Vivipara leei Hsü 1935, from a low‐altitude river in Guilin, Guangxi, China, which was previously known only from shells in the Quaternary deposits of a cave in Guilin. We newly sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of 14 viviparid species within nine genera, including Vivipara leei , none of which had been sequenced before. Here we reconstructed a robust time‐calibrated phylogeny of Viviparidae based on mitochondrial genomes and two nuclear markers, 28S and H3. Based on integrative morphological and phylogenetic analyses, Vivipara leei is assigned to a new genus and combination, Yawangia leei gen. et comb. n ., which is the sister group of Dalipaludina endemic to the high‐altitude lentic environment of Yunnan, China. Yawangia gen. n. has diverged from Dalipaludina during the Oligocene. The geographic isolation and different habitat preferences may have driven and accelerated the divergence of these two genera. LSID urn:lsid: zoobank.org :act:27A05BAF‐3BE8‐4BB4‐BE90‐E4FC2B7EDA43.