As sort of an outside expert, Annette Klussmann-Kolb talked about the systematics of gastropods. She started out by showing how little morphology can actually tell us about phylogeny when compared to the molecular genetic data now available. This basically dismisses most morphological evidence for certain phylogenetic hypotheses. Only if there appear to be artifacts in the molecular data due to hypervariability or exceptionally high mutation rates, morphological data may still be worthwhile. Not that this was of any surprise, but it was good to hear it confirmed by an expert.
She told us that all the model systems studied by the people in this meeting belong to the Euthyneura taxon! Maybe we should call the meeting Euthyneura Neuroscience now? This group of Euthyneura is yet not very well characterized phylogenetically. Apparently, Opisthobranchs are not even monophyletic! Pulmonates may be monophyletic, though. These are interesting developments.
Annette went on to show us how such phylogenetic data can be used to reconstruct ancestral character states, using the example characters of terrestrial vs. aquatic life, rhinophores, cephalic shields and Hancock's organ.