title: The Caucasus is neither a cradle nor a museum of diversity of the land snail genus Helix (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora, Helicidae), while Crimea is home to an ancient lineage
abstract: The Caucasus and the adjacent Pontic Mountains in north-eastern Anatolia are home to numerous endemic land snail genera and species. The diversity of the region is the result of both intra-regional speciation and the persistence of relict lineages. The same seemed to be true for the genus Helix , which has been present in the Greater Caucasus since the Miocene. In the Caucasus region, there are three Helix species. Helix buchii (Pontic Mountains and Georgia) and Helix albescens (southern Ukraine
journal: Zoosystematics and Evolution