Evolution and Circumscription of the True Cypresses (Cupressaceae: Cupressus)

2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damon P. Little

Recent phylogenetic investigations of Cupressoideae have found evidence to suggest that Cupressus is not monophyletic. This study tested the division of Cupressus into an Old World clade and a New World clade with complete sampling of the 28 extant species. Data from anatomy, biochemistry, micromorphology, reproductive development, reproductive morphology, and vegetative morphology were combined with molecular sequence data (matK, NEEDLY intron 2, nrITS, rbcL, and trnL) to produce the most complete hypothesis of evolutionary relationships within Cupressoideae to date. Callitropsis, Cupressus, and Juniperus formed a well–supported monophyletic group (100%). Within this clade, the only demonstrably monophyletic genus was Juniperus (100%). Monophyly of the 12 Old World species of Cupressus was well supported (100%). Old World species of Cupressus were sister to Juniperus (99%). Callitropsis and the 16 New World species of Cupressus were resolved as the sister group to the Old World Cupressus plus Juniperus clade (100%), rendering Cupressus polyphyletic. The relationship between Callitropsis and the New World species of Cupressus was not resolved. Based on the results of the combined analysis, generic circumscriptions were modified: Cupressus was restricted exclusively to Old World species and Callitropsis was expanded to include the New World species previously classified as Cupressus (seventeen new combinations in Callitropsis were made).

Zootaxa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2553 (1) ◽  
pp. 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARJOLAINE GIROUX ◽  
TERRY A. WHEELER

Sarcophaga (Bulbostyla) subgen. nov. is described as a new subgenus of Sarcophaga Meigen to accommodate some species previously assigned to the subgenus S. (Neobellieria) Blanchard. Sarcophaga (Bulbostyla) contains nine species: S. airosalis sp. nov., S. cadyi sp. nov. (type species), S. cuautla sp. nov., S. fattigina sp. nov., S. ironalis sp. nov., S. semimarginalis Hall, S. sternalis (Reinhard), S. subdiscalis Aldrich and S. yorkii Parker. All species are described and illustrated and a key to the species is provided. The species within the subgenus are morphologically uniform externally and are distinguished mostly on male genitalic characters. Phylogenetic relationships within Bulbostyla are unresolved based on morphological characters and will require consideration of additional characters, such as molecular sequence data. The genus-group taxon Robackina Lopes is removed from synonymy with the subgenus Sarcophaga (Neobellieria) and reinstated as a valid subgenus of Sarcophaga (stat. nov.) to accommodate the single New World species Sarcophaga triplasia Wulp. A lectotype is designated for S. triplasia. The subgenus and species are redescribed and illustrated.


Author(s):  
T.S. Kemp

The vast majority of living and fossil mammals are placentals. Today there are about 4,400 species, which are traditionally organised into 18 Orders, with an extra one if the Pinnipedia are separated from the Carnivora, and a twentieth if the recently extinct Malagasy order Bibymalagasia is recognised as such. There have been many attempts to discover supraordinal groupings from amongst these Orders based on morphological characters, though few proposals have been universally accepted. It is only with the advent of increasingly large sets of molecular sequence data in the last few years that a reasonably robust resolution looks imminent, although these contemporary analyses are remarkably and controversially at odds with the traditional ones. Novacek et al. (1988) summarised the then current situation regarding supraordinal classification of placentals, a time at which morphology was still dominant but molecular data was at the threshold of significance. They accepted a basal group Edentata that combined the Xenarthra of the New World with the Pholidota of the Old, based on a few cranial characters, loss of the anterior teeth, and reduction of the enamel of the remaining ones. This left the rest of the living placentals as a monophyletic group Epitheria, sharing such apparently minor characters as the shape of the stapes bone in the ear. They found very little resolution within the Epitheria, and concluded that there was a polychotomy of no less than nine lineages arranged as a ‘star’ phylogeny. No remnant of the previously recognised taxon Ferungulata, created by Simpson (1945) for the Carnivora plus the ungulate orders Artiodactyla, Perissodactyla, Proboscidea, Hyracoidea, Sirenia, and Tubulidentata remained. On the other hand, three supra ordinal taxa of earlier authors did survive. One was Gregory’s (1910) Archonta, consisting of generally conservative forms and by now composed of the Primates, Dermoptera, Scandentia, and Chiroptera, but excluding the Lipotyphla. The second was Glires, originating with Linnaeus (1758) and widely accepted ever since, for the Rodentia and Lagomorpha; Novacek et al. (1988) tentatively placed the Macroscelidea as the sister-group of the Glires. The third supraordinal taxon recognised was, like Glires, well-established if not universally accepted.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 747 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Zhang ◽  
Zehui Kang ◽  
Shuangmei Ding ◽  
Yuyu Wang ◽  
Chris Borkent ◽  
...  

Culicomorpha is a monophyletic group containing most bloodsucking lower dipterans, including many important vectors of pathogens. However, the higher-level phylogenetic relationships within Culicomorpha are largely unresolved, with multiple competing hypotheses based on molecular sequence data. Here we sequenced four nearly complete mitochondrial (mt) genomes representing four culicomorph families, and combined these new data with published mt genomes to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of all eight extant culicomorph families. We estimated phylogenies using four datasets and three methods. We also used four-cluster likelihood mapping to study potential incongruent topologies supported by the different datasets and phylogenetic questions generated by the previous studies. The results showed that a clade containing Ceratopogonidae, Thaumaleidae and Simuliidae was the sister group to all other Culicomorpha; in another clade, the Dixidae was basal to the remaining four families; Chaoboridae, Corethrellidae and Culicidae formed a monophyletic group and the Chironomidae was the sister group to this clade; Culicidae and Corethrellidae were sister groups in all trees. Our study provides novel mt genome data in Culicomorpha for three new family representatives, and the resulting mt phylogenomic analysis helps to resolve the phylogeny and taxonomy of Culicomorpha.


2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 839-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Haasl

Phylogenetic relationships within the neogastropod family Nassariidae are poorly understood as are relationships between the Nassariidae and other fossil and extant buccinid taxa. The poor resolution of nassariid and buccinoidean relationships is due to: 1) the complex distribution among these gastropods of characters commonly used in classification; 2) a number of Mesozoic and Paleogene genera whose relationships to extant buccinoidean lineages are poorly constrained; and 3) a lack of previous efforts to address these problems on a rigorous, phylogenetic basis.The results of a phylogenetic analysis of nassariid genera did not decisively support the monophyly of the family. The buccinid subfamily Photinae was an extant sister group to the Nassariinae in a phylogenetic analysis of extant taxa and on many cladograms from an analysis combining fossil and extant taxa. In addition, Buccitriton (representing the Paleogene Tritiaria group) was a sister taxon to the Nassariinae in all analyses in which it was included, regardless of the identity of the extant nassariine sister group. This suggests that the photines, which likely arose from a Tritiaria ancestor, are the closest living relatives to the Nassariinae. Many Paleogene fossil “buccinoid” taxa appear to be more distantly related to the Nassariinae and possibly to the rest of the nassariids as well. Stratigraphic range data combined with the results of this study suggest that the Nassariinae diversified rapidly in the early Miocene and achieved a cosmopolitan distribution early in their history. A largely Indo-Pacific subclade was consistently deeply-nested within the Nassariinae, suggesting that nassariines invaded the Indo-Pacific region most recently. The timing of this invasion is difficult to estimate but had occurred by the end of the Miocene. Further analyses using molecular sequence data, relative stratigraphic position, or focusing in more detail on the Paleogene taxa are required to resolve the identity of the sister group to the Nassariinae with greater confidence.


Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4671 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-368
Author(s):  
CHARLOTTE WATSON ◽  
EKIN TILIC ◽  
GREG W. ROUSE

The formerly monotypic taxon, Hyalopale bispinosa Perkins 1985 (Chrysopetalinae), is comprised of a cryptic species complex from predominantly tropical embayments and island reefs of the Western Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans. Hyalopale species are of meiofaunal size (length: 1−2.8mm), but considered non-interstitial, with the majority of species inhabiting a singular habitat of shallow littoral zones among algae and epifauna overlying sediments in rubble. Hyalopale adults exhibit notochaetal fans characterized by the presence of lateral and midline notochaetal spines. Species of Hyalopale can be distinguished by the shape of glass-like notochaetal paleae and the number of densely stacked ribs. Hyalopale bispinosa forms a western and eastern Atlantic species complex, comprising the type species, Hyalopale bispinosa s.s., a comparatively larger form with the highest number of notochaetal paleael ribs from Florida, and Hyalopale cf. bispinosa, from the western and eastern Mediterranean, a smaller form with a similar notochaetal morphology to the latter. Unfortunately, no molecular sequence data is available for Hyalopale bispinosa s.s. Five new species are described, with molecular sequence data provided for three: Hyalopale leslieae sp. nov., a small form with a comparatively low number of paleal ribs, found from the Florida Keys to Belize, Caribbean Sea, H. zerofskii sp. nov. from southern California and Mexico, eastern Pacific and H. sapphiriglancyorum sp. nov., a distinctive species with the lowest number of paleael ribs, from Raja Ampat, Indonesia and the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, western Pacific. Two other species are described from morphology alone: H. angeliensis sp. nov. from Dampier, Western Australia and Seychelle Islands, eastern Indian Ocean and H. furfuricula sp. nov. from the Red Sea and Mozambique, western Indian Ocean, possessing a unique paleal brow shape. While well supported as a clade, support for relationships within Hyalopale is low. Hyalopale cf. bispinosa (Mediterranean) was recovered as sister group to the remaining Hyalopale, with H. leslieae sp. nov. as sister to the Hyalopale Pacific clade, comprising H. zerofskii sp. nov. (eastern Pacific) and H. sapphiriglancyorum sp. nov. (western Pacific). Within Chrysopetalinae, Hyalopale and Paleanotus formed a clade that was the sister group to the other paleate chrysopetalids under maximum likelihood, though Paleanotus grouped with the other paleate forms under maximum parsimony. The adult morphology of Hyalopale species is compared with that exhibited in the larvae of Paleanotus species; based on these results, including possession of a shared notochaetal character, Hyalopale is considered to contain paedomorphic taxa. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2665 (1) ◽  
pp. 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELENA K. KUPRIYANOVA ◽  
EIJIROH NISHI

A collection of Serpulidae (Annelida, Polychaeta) from the Patton-Murray Seamounts, Gulf of Alaska, USA contained three species Apomatus voightae n. sp., Bathyvermilia eliasoni n. comb., and Hyalopomatus biformis (Hartman, 1960). Apomatus voightae n. sp. differed from all other Apomatus spp. and from all known serpulid species by very unusual flat and ribbon-like branchial radioles as well by details of chaetal structure. Vermiliopsis eliasoni Zibrowius (1970) previously known from Atlantic and Mediterranean, was transferred to the genus Bathyvermilia Zibrowius, 1973. Hyalopomatus biformis is a deep-sea species distributed in the north-eastern Pacific from Alaska to California, USA. All serpulids were described in detail and their chaetal structure elucidated with the help of scanning electron microscopy. Molecular sequence data (18S rDNA) were aligned to a recently published serpulid data set and maximum parsimony analysis was performed to examine the phylogenetic position of the species and confirm their identification. Hyalopomatus biformis formed a sister group with Laminatubus alvini, Apomatus voightae n. sp. formed a sister group with Apomatus globifer, and Bathyvermilia eliasoni formed a weakly supported polytomy with Chitinopoma serrula, Protula tubularia and Apomatus spp. We briefly discussed biogeographic affinities of the serpulids from the PattonMurray Seamounts in the light of seamount ecology and biogeography.


2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven D. LEAVITT ◽  
Theodore L. ESSLINGER ◽  
Matthew P. NELSEN ◽  
H. Thorsten LUMBSCH

AbstractThe new species Oropogon evernicus Essl. & S. Leavitt and O. protocetraricus S. Leavitt & Essl. are described from montane regions of Central America, further increasing the diversity of this genus in the New World. Oropogon evernicus is separated from O. americanus by the presence of medullary tissue directly beneath the pseudocyphellae, while O. protocetraricus is separated from O. caespitosus by the presence of protocetraric acid. The segregation of both species is confirmed by molecular sequence data (nuclear ITS, nuLSU, and β-tubulin). Both species appear to have split from their most recent common ancestor during the Miocene, supporting Miocene-dominated diversification of neotropical Oropogon species found in Central America.


2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Peel

A large (maximum length 80 mm), tubular, corset-like problematic fossil from the early Cambrian (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 3) Sirius Passet Lagerstätte of North Greenland is interpreted as the lorica of an ancestral loriciferan. in addition to the double circlet of 7 plates composing the lorica, Sirilorica carlsbergi new genus, new species also preserves up to six multicuspidate cuticular denticles that are similar in shape to the pharyngeal teeth of priapulid worms, although their location is suggestive of scalids. Whilst traditionally placed as a sister group of priapulid worms within Vinctiplicata (Scalidophora), recent molecular sequence data suggest that loriciferans might be more closely related to nematomorphs. the limited morphological information available from Sirilorica is consistent with this interpretation, placing the Sirius Passet fossil within the total-group of Loricifera, within the Loricifera + Nematomorpha clade.


Author(s):  
T.S. Kemp

There are about 4,600 species of animals today that are called mammals because, despite an astonishing diversity of form and habitat, they all share a long list of characters not found in any other organisms, such as the presence of mammary glands, the single bone in the lower jaw, and the neocortex of the forebrain. This makes them unambiguously distinct from their closest living relatives, and their unique characters together define a monophyletic taxon, the class Mammalia. Three subgroups are readily distinguished amongst the living mammals. The Monotremata are the egg-laying mammals of Australasia, consisting only of two species of echidna and a single platypus species; for all their primitive reproductive biology, monotremes are fully mammalian in their general structure and biology. The Marsupialia, or Metatheria are the pouched mammals, whose approximately 260 species dominate the mammalian fauna of Australia, and also occur as part of the indigenous fauna of the Americas. By far the largest group of living mammals are the Placentalia, or Eutheria with about 4,350 species divided into usually eighteen recent orders. It is virtually unanimously accepted that the closest living relatives, the sister group, of mammals consists of the reptiles and the birds. The only serious dissent from this view in recent years was that of Gardiner (1982) who advocated that the birds alone and mammals were sister groups, the two constituting a taxon Haemothermia, defined among other characters by the endothermic (‘warm-blooded’) temperature physiology. Gardiner certainly drew attention to some remarkable similarities between birds and mammals, notably the details of the endothermic processes, the enlarged size and surface folding of the cerebellum, and a number of more superficial morphological features. There was also some molecular sequence data supporting the Haemothermia concept, including the beta-globin gene and 18S rRNA. Gardiner’s view briefly became a cause célèbre in part for its sheer heterodoxy, but all concerned have since rejected it on the grounds that a careful, comprehensive analysis of the characters supports the traditional view (Kemp 1988b), particularly if the characters of the relevant fossils are taken into account (Gauthier, Kluge, and Rowe 1988).


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