Species diversity and phylogeny of the deep-sea genus Pseudomma (Crustacea: Mysida)

Zootaxa ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 649 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
KENNETH MELAND
Keyword(s):  
Deep Sea ◽  
Taxonomic Status ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Stabilizing Selection ◽  
Frequency Coding ◽  
Morphological Stasis ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Branching Patterns ◽  
History Of ◽  
General Frequency

The mysidacean genus Pseudomma G.O. Sars, 1870 occurs throughout the world s oceans, containing 38 highly endemic and primarily deep sea species. The taxonomic history of the genus and taxonomic status of species currently included in Pseudomma is reviewed. Pseudomma kruppi W.M. Tattersall, 1909 is for the first time recorded from the Pacific Ocean. A comparative study of morphology suggests morphological stasis within the genus Pseudomma, possibly a result of stabilizing selection in a homogeneous deep-sea environment. 71 morphological characters are used to reconstruct Pseudomma phylogeny. The general frequency coding method (GFC) was applied in re-coding 14 polymorphic characters. Fifty-seven conventional characters were treated in separate analyses as either ordered or unordered to investigate how assumptions on character transformation influenced phylogeny. Maximum parsimony searches with both assumptions produced incongruent trees with conflicting branching patterns particularly in deeper nodes. A meaningful interpretation of origin and radiation in early lineages proved to be difficult. Recognition of consistent and more robust branching patterns in several recent lineages suggest monophyletic species groups that are confined within three major geographic areas, North Atlantic, northern Pacific and Antarctic. Branching order could be attributed to speciation events that were in accordance with recent geological history, such as the closing of the Panama Isthmus and establishment of the Norwegian Sea.

scholarly journals A multigene and morphological analysis expands the diversity of the seabod shrimp Xiphopenaeus Smith, 1869 (Decapoda: Penaeidae), with descriptions of two new species

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abner Carvalho-Batista ◽  
Mariana Terossi ◽  
Fernando J. Zara ◽  
Fernando L. Mantelatto ◽  
Rogerio C. Costa
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Morphological Analysis ◽  
Taxonomic Status ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Genetic Groups ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Two New Species ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of

Abstract After being stable for nearly a century, the taxonomic history of the genus Xiphopenaeus has been marked by many changes in the last three decades. The taxonomic status of the Atlantic species has a low resolution, and many species are still undefined and grouped as cryptic species. Here we employed an integrative approach to define the species of Xiphopenaeus and the morphological characters needed to differentiate them. We combined the analyses of two molecular markers (COI and 16 S rDNA), scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy. Based on specimens from 17 localities from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, we detected five divergent genetic groups, three in the Atlantic (A1, A2, A3) and two in the Pacific (P1, P2). Male secondary sexual characters were able to differentiate four out of the five genetic groups. Group A1 corresponds to X. kroyeri, and A2 and A3 correspond to new species. We redescribed the genus and two new species are described and illustrated: Xiphopenaeus dincao nov. sp. (A2) and Xiphopenaeus baueri nov. sp. (A3). Since the holotype of X. riveti was missing and the specimen analysed from group P2 was a female, the status of the species of Xiphopenaeus from the Pacific remains unresolved.

Taxonomy, natural history, and conservation of the Great-billed Seed-Finch Sporophila maximiliani (Cabanis, 1851) (Thraupidae, Sporophilinae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4442 (4) ◽  
pp. 551 ◽  
Author(s):  
FLÁVIO KULAIF UBAID ◽  
LUÍS FABIO SILVEIRA ◽  
CESAR A. B. MEDOLAGO ◽  
THIAGO V. V. COSTA ◽  
MERCIVAL ROBERTO FRANCISCO ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
South America ◽  
Captive Breeding ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Taxonomic Status ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Morphometric Characters ◽  
History Of

Seed-finches are small-sized Neotropical granivorous birds characterized by extremely strong and thick beaks. Among these birds, the Great-billed Seed-Finch Sporophila maximiliani has been selectively and intensively trapped to the extent that has become one of the most endangered bird species in South America, yet its taxonomy remains complex and controversial. Two subspecies have been recognized: S. m. maximiliani (Cabanis, 1851), mainly from the Cerrado of central South America, and S. m. parkesi Olson (= Oryzoborus m. magnirostris), from northeastern South America. Originally, S. m. parkesi was diagnosed as being larger than the Large-billed Seed-Finch, S. c. crassirostris (Gmelin, 1789), but proper comparisons with S. m. maximiliani, which is larger than S. c. crassirostris, were never performed. Here we provide a review of the taxonomic and nomenclatural history of S. maximiliani, reevaluate the validity and taxonomic status of the subspecies based on morphological characters, and significantly revise its geographic distribution. Analyses based on plumage patterns and a Principal Component Analysis of morphometric characters indicated that S. m. parkesi is most appropriately treated as a synonym of the nominate taxon, which results in a monotypic S. maximiliani comprising two disjunct populations. Further, we conducted systematic searches for S. maximiliani in Brazil, in an attempt to obtain natural history information. After more than 6,000 hours of fieldwork in 45 areas of potential and historical occurrence, S. maximiliani was located only in two sites, in marshy environments called veredas, confirming the critical conservation status of this species, at least in Brazil. We discuss the conservation potential for, and the problems involved with, captive breeding of S. maximiliani for reintroduction into the wild. 

scholarly journals ON THE IDENTITY OF HOG-NOSED PIT-VIPERS FROM WESTERN PANAMA: A REVIEW OF SPECIMENS OF PORTHIDIUM LANSBERGII (SCHLEGEL, 1841) IN LOWER CENTRAL AMERICA.

Tecnociencia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-44
Author(s):  
Claudio Manuel Monteza-Moreno ◽  
Carlos Ramos ◽  
Victor Martínez ◽  
Mahmood Sasa
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Taxonomic Status ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Seasonally Dry ◽  
Semiarid Environments ◽  
Bayesian Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Extended Range ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The Western Pacific

Porthidium lansbergii is a relatively abundant pit viper in semiarid environments from eastern Panama, through the Caribbean plains and Magdalena Valley in Colombia to northeastern Venezuela. Like other members of this genus, P. lansbergii exhibits great variation in scutellation and other morphological characters, a situation that has complicated the taxonomy and identification of populations assigned to the species. In Lower Central America, P. lansbergii is known to inhabit seasonally-dry environments of the Pacific slopes of western Panama. Here, we aimed to clarify the taxonomic status of some enigmatic specimens collected in western Panama, with morphological ambiguity, resembling P. lansbergii. We used the mitochondrial marker cytochrome oxidase b to perform a Bayesian phylogenetic analysis, to evaluate the affinities ofthese specimens with P. lansbergii individuals from central and eastern Panama, and Venezuela. We also analyzed meristic morphological characters to discriminate among populations of P. lansbergii in Panama, including other species of the Porthidium genus. Our analyses indicate that the enigmatic individuals do not differ from others individuals identified as P. lansbergii, thus forming a monophyletic group. We conclude that P. lansbergii has a more extended range than currently recognized including the western Pacific in Panama.   

2. Seafloor spreading and magnetic anomalies

2015 ◽  
pp. 17-35
Author(s):  
Peter Molnar
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Magnetic Anomalies ◽  
Seafloor Spreading ◽  
Ocean Floor ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Ocean Ridges ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference

‘Seafloor spreading and magnetic anomalies’ begins with the Vine–Matthews Hypothesis, which proposed that strips of seafloor parallel to the mid-ocean ridges, where two plates diverge from one another, were magnetized in opposite directions because the Earth’s field had reversed itself many times. A test of the Vine–Matthews Hypothesis, which required determining the age of the seafloor, became a test of seafloor spreading. Dating the ocean floor using magnetic anomalies detected by magnetometers towed behind ships and core samples extracted during the Deep-Sea Drilling Project confirmed the hypothesis. With magnetic anomalies to date the seafloor and a curve relating seafloor depth and age, the difference between the Atlantic, with its ‘ridge’, and the Pacific and its ‘rise’ became comprehensible. With a theory for predicting the depths of oceans, it was also possible to understand the history of sea-level changes.

scholarly journals Evidencia morfológica y molecular en la delimitación de Behria y Bessera, dos géneros del complejo Milla (Themidaceae)

2019 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Etelvina Gándara ◽  
Victoria Sosa ◽  
José Luis León De La Luz
Keyword(s):  
Baja California ◽  
Intergenic Spacer ◽  
Taxonomic Status ◽  
Volcanic Belt ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Monotypic Genus ◽  
Diagnostic Characters ◽  
Mexican Volcanic Belt ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt

Among the taxa of the <em>Milla</em> complex (Themidaceae), a monocot group of perennial petaloid geophytes, there are two genera with controversial taxonomic status: <em>Behria</em> andBessera. Tree-based and character-based analyses were conducted on 14 populations to determine if they should be considered different taxa. In addition, ecological separation was taken into account. As outgroups representative taxa of <em>Dandya, Jaimehintonia, Milla and Petronymphe,</em> i.e. the rest of the genera in the <em>Milla</em> clade, were used. <em>Behria</em> is a monotypic genus restricted to Baja California and <em>Bessera</em> includes two species from the Pacific slopes of Mexico and the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. The chloroplast intergenic spacer <em>psbK-psbI</em> was sequenced and 37 morphological characters were coded. Tree-based analyses retrieved all populations of <em>Behria </em> and all populations of <em>Bessera</em> as monophyletic groups, both forming part of a more inclusive clade. Character-based analysis detected six diagnostic characters, all of which were floral. The conclusion of recognizing <em>Behria</em> and <em>Bessera</em> as independent genera was based on these results and also on their different distributional ranges.

scholarly journals Revalidation of Pyxicephalus angusticeps Parry, 1982 (Anura: Natatanura: Pyxicephalidae), a bullfrog endemic to the lowlands of eastern Africa

Zootaxa ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 3599 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH SCOTT ◽  
JOHN D. VISSER ◽  
CAROLINE A. YETMAN ◽  
CAROLINE A. YETMAN ◽  
LAUREN OLIVER ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Taxonomic Status ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Advertisement Call ◽  
Breeding Ecology ◽  
East African ◽  
Diagnostic Characters ◽  
History Of ◽  
Voucher Specimens

Pyxicephalus currently contains three recognized species, viz. P. adspersus, P. edulis and P. obbianus, the former two of which have a long history of confusion. Parry (1982) described P. adspersus angusticeps from Beira, Mozambique, which was synonymized with P. edulis. We re-examine the taxonomic status of Pyxicephalus taxa from Mozambique, examining the types and contrasting them to congeners throughout Africa. Morphological characters previously used to delimit species in Pyxicephalus are examined, and problems with some identified. Additional diagnostic characters and their variation in Pyxicephalus are discussed, and a revised key is provided. Confusion among species in the genus, type localities, literature and folklore led to P. adspersus angusticeps being incorrectly synonymized with P. edulis. We formally revalidate P. angusticeps, and designate a lectotype for P. edulis. The identity of voucher specimens from previous work suggests that the breeding ecology of P. angusticeps is distinct from that of P. adspersus and P. edulis, and that the advertisement call of P. angusticeps was used as part of the evidence for elevating P. edulis out of synonymy with P. adspersus. The previous confusion of P. adspersus and P. edulis does not affect the recognition of P. angusticeps. The wider implication of the previous misidentification of P. angusticeps as P. edulis is that most of the museum material labeled as P. adspersus from East Africa is P. edulis, and most of the museum material labeled as P. edulis from East Africa is P. angusticeps. This conclusion has been confirmed from East African museum material thus far examined.

Morphological conservatism of the family Naticidae (Gastropoda) through time: potential causes and consequences

Paleobiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Neha Sharma ◽  
Subhronil Mondal ◽  
Shiladri S. Das ◽  
Kanishka Bose ◽  
Sandip Saha
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Evolution ◽  
Taxonomic Status ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Shell Morphology ◽  
Canonical Variate ◽  
The Family ◽  
Mode Of Life ◽  
History Of ◽  
Taxonomic Changes ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Taxonomic status of several members of the family Naticidae is extremely vague because of its simple shell morphology. Conventional taxonomic classification schemes suggest that most of the morphological characters tend to be homoplastic and exhibit convergence. Such morphological convergence complicates naticid taxonomy and makes it difficult to understand the evolutionary history of this group; several unrelated taxa are often misidentified as naticids, thereby exaggerating the actual diversity of this group. Here, we employ a standard landmark-based approach to understand the pattern of morphological evolution of this family. Ordination methods such as principal components analysis and canonical variate analysis were used to create morphospaces, and disparity was quantified using variance and range. Our results reveal that when naticids are compared with their sister taxon, Ampullinidae, the two families show significant differences in their average shapes, despite their superficial resemblances. Among naticids, although the mean shapes of the individual subfamilies are different, overall, the family Naticidae has displayed extreme morphological conservatism from the Jurassic to the Holocene. Interestingly, this conservatism has been unaffected by taxonomic changes—neither the extinction of the subfamily Gyrodinae nor the appearance of the subfamily Sininae affected this morphological conservatism. Naticids have always shown strong ecological preference toward an infaunal mode of life and strict behavioral selectivity in handling and preying upon infaunal organisms, and this ecological and behavioral conservatism could have enabled them to diversify without undergoing a change in their basic Bauplan.

From marine caves to the deep sea, a new look at Caminella (Demospongiae, Geodiidae) in the Atlanto-Mediterranean region

Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4466 (1) ◽  
pp. 174 ◽  
Author(s):  
PACO CÁRDENAS ◽  
JEAN VACELET ◽  
PIERRE CHEVALDONNÉ ◽  
THIERRY PÉREZ ◽  
JOANA R. XAVIER
Keyword(s):  
Deep Sea ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Complex Surface ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
The North ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Material ◽  
Surface Microstructures ◽  
Relationship Of

Caminella Lendenfeld, 1894 is a poorly known Geodiidae genus with unclear phylogenetic relationships. In order to find new lines of evidence that could shed light on the evolutionary history of Caminella, we decided to revise type material and museum material, as well as examine new material from underwater caves and deep-sea ecosystems. In doing so, we formally show that Isops maculosus Vosmaer, 1894 and Caminella loricata Lendenfeld, 1894 are junior synonyms of Caminella intuta (Topsent, 1892). We discuss different spicule morphological phenotypes in C. intuta, which may be linked to silica availability. We also discovered two new species of deep-sea Caminella: 1) from Cape Verde (Caminella caboverdensis sp. nov.) and 2) from seamounts located south of the Azores archipelago and the North of Spain (Caminella pustula sp. nov.). We reveal that Caminella sterrasters have complex surface microstructures, unique amongst the Geodiidae, where actin tips are linked to each other. Molecular markers (COI, 28S (C1-D2) and 18S) sequenced for some specimens led to new phylogenetic analyses, which continue to suggest a close relationship of Caminella with the Erylinae and Calthropella; these affinities are discussed in light of morphological characters. 

A Short history of the post-graduate surgical training in Fiji - where to from here?

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jitoko Kelepi Cama ◽  
Sonal Singh Nagra
Keyword(s):  
Surgical Training ◽  
Training Programme ◽  
Post Graduate ◽  
School Of Medicine ◽  
Postgraduate Training Programme ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
National University ◽  
History Of ◽  
Training Of Surgeons ◽  
Pacific Island Nations

Post-graduate surgical training at the Fiji National University (FNU), previously known as the Fiji School of Medicine) has recently been updated by incorporating elements from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) training curriculum. The revised curriculum maintains strong contextual relevance to the needs and pathologies of the Pacific Island nations.  This paper outlines why the FNU surgical postgraduate training programme should be applauded as a successful programme in the training of surgeons for the region.

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