How do species originate in the oceans? And what causes their extinction? Why some regions in the oceans are more diverse than others? Are the mechanisms responsible for the patterns of diversity in the deep-sea the same as in shallow ecosystems? Understanding the patterns and causes that drive present diversity in the oceans it’s one of the main goals of my research. As model organisms I use a group of gastropod molluscs – the cephalaspids. The study of the diversity, systematics and evolution of cephalaspids gastropods is consequently an important line of my research activity. This group of marine snails is poorly understood and I use morphological and DNA characters to recognize species and reconstruct hypotheses of evolution  and relationships (phylogenies) at species, genera, and family level.