A Phylogenetic Analysis and Taxonomic Revision of Bartonia (Gentianaceae: Gentianeae), Based on Molecular and Morphological Evidence

A phylogenetic study and taxonomic revision of the four currently accepted species of Bartonia (Gentianaceae, subtribe Swertiinae) were conducted in order to test species boundaries and interspecific relationships. Species boundaries were examined based on measurements of key quantitative and qualitative morphological characters as given in the original descriptions. Phylogenetic analyses were performed using molecular data from the nuclear internal transcribed spacer region and chloroplast DNA (trnL intron through the trnL-F spacer), separately and combined using parsimony and Bayesian methodologies, incorporating outgroups from subtribes Swertiinae and Gentianinae. The morphological study revealed that characters of one species, B. texana, represent a subset of the morphological variation found within B. paniculata, but that B. paniculata, B. verna, and B. virginica could all be separated from one another. The molecular phylogenetic analyses all found B. texana to nest in a clade with the two recognized subspecies of B. paniculata (subsp. paniculata and subsp. iodandra), making the latter paraphyletic. Bartonia texana is here reduced to subspecific rank, as Bartonia paniculata subsp. texana. Also, the phylogenetic analyses showed strong support for a sister group relationship between B. verna and B. virginica, as opposed to between B. paniculata and B. virginica as has been previously suggested.

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Ingroup relationships of Lagerpetidae (Avemetatarsalia: Dinosauromorpha): a further phylogenetic investigation on the understanding of dinosaur relatives

Zootaxa ◽

10.11646/zootaxa.4392.1.7 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4392 (1) ◽

pp. 149 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

RODRIGO TEMP MÜLLER ◽

MAX CARDOSO LANGER ◽

SÉRGIO DIAS-DA-SILVA

Keyword(s):

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Sister Group ◽

The Other ◽

Sister Taxon ◽

Phylogenetic Study ◽

Sister Group Relationship ◽

Independent Data ◽

New Findings ◽

Alternative Topology ◽

Western Portion

Despite representing a key-taxon in dinosauromorph phylogeny, Lagerpertidae is one of the most obscure and enigmatic branches from the stem that leads to the dinosaurs. Recent new findings have greatly increased our knowledge about lagerpetids, but no phylogenetic analysis has so far included all known members of this group. Here, we present the most inclusive phylogenetic study so far conducted for Lagerpetidae. Phylogenetic analyses were performed based on three independent data matrixes. In two of them, Lagerpeton chanarensis Romer, 1971 is the sister taxon to all other known Lagerpetidae, whereas Ixalerpeton polesinensis Cabreira et al., 2016 is in a sister group relationship with a clade that includes PVSJ 883 and Dromomeron. Conversely, the other analysis supports an alternative topology, where I. polesinensis is the sister taxon to either L. chanarensis or all other Lagerpetidae. Although coeval and geographically close, I. polesinensis and PVSJ 883 do not form a clade exclusive of other lagerpetids. As previously suggested D. gigas Martínez, Apaldetti, Correa & Abelín, 2016 is the sister taxon of D. romeri Irmis et al., 2007. The phylogenetic analyses also indicate that the earliest lagerpetids are restricted to southwestern Pangea, whereas later forms spread across the entire western portion of the supercontinent. Finally, quantification of the codified characters of our analysis reveals that Lagerpetidae is one of the poorest known among the Triassic dinosauromorph groups in terms of their anatomy, so that new discoveries of more complete specimens are awaited to establish a more robust phylogeny.

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Molecular phylogeny of the Annelida

Canadian Journal of Zoology ◽

10.1139/z00-141 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 78 (11) ◽

pp. 1873-1884 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

Damhnait McHugh

Keyword(s):

Molecular Analysis ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Strong Support ◽

Nuclear Gene ◽

Sister Group ◽

The Body ◽

Sister Group Relationship ◽

Molecular Evidence ◽

Gene Sequences ◽

Sister Relationship

Traditionally, the Annelida has been classified as a group comprising the Polychaeta and the Clitellata. Recent phylogenetic analyses have led to profound changes in the view that the Annelida, as traditionally formulated, is a natural, monophyletic group. Both molecular and morphological analyses support placement of the Siboglinidae (formerly the Pogonophora) as a derived group within the Annelida; there is also evidence, based on molecular analysis of the nuclear gene elongation factor-1α, that the unsegmented echiurids are derived annelids. While monophyly of the Clitellata is well-supported by both molecular and morphological analyses, there is no molecular evidence to support monophyly of the polychaete annelids; the Clitellata fall within a paraphyletic polychaete grade. Relationships among groups of polychaete annelids have not yet been resolved by molecular analysis. Within the Clitellata, paraphyly of the Oligochaeta was indicated in a phylogenetic analysis of cytochrome c oxidase I, which supported a sister relationship between the leeches, including an acanthobdellid and a branchiobdellid, and two of the four oligochaetes in the analysis. There is some evidence from analysis of 18S rRNA sequences for a sister-group relationship between the clitellates and the taxon Aeolosoma. There is no agreement regarding the body form of the basal annelid, and while molecular analyses provide strong support for the Eutrochozoa, the identity of sister-group to the Annelida among the Eutrochozoa remains enigmatic. It is recommended that future investigations include additional conserved gene sequences and expanded taxon sampling. It is likely that the most productive approach to resolving annelid phylogeny, and thus increasing our understanding of annelid evolution, will come from combined analyses of several gene sequences.

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Diversification of the North American Doellingeria-Eucephalus Clade (Astereae: Asteraceae) Inferred from Molecular and Morphological Evidence

Systematic Botany ◽

10.1600/036364419x15710776741477 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 44 (4) ◽

pp. 930-942

Author(s):

Geraldine A. Allen ◽

Luc Brouillet ◽

John C. Semple ◽

Heidi J. Guest ◽

Robert Underhill

Keyword(s):

North American ◽

Sequence Data ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Sister Group ◽

Morphological Evidence ◽

South American ◽

New Combinations ◽

The North ◽

Hybridization Event ◽

Ancient Hybridization

Abstract—Doellingeria and Eucephalus form the earliest-diverging clade of the North American Astereae lineage. Phylogenetic analyses of both nuclear and plastid sequence data show that the Doellingeria-Eucephalus clade consists of two main subclades that differ from current circumscriptions of the two genera. Doellingeria is the sister group to E. elegans, and the Doellingeria + E. elegans subclade in turn is sister to the subclade containing all remaining species of Eucephalus. In the plastid phylogeny, the two subclades are deeply divergent, a pattern that is consistent with an ancient hybridization event involving ancestral species of the Doellingeria-Eucephalus clade and an ancestral taxon of a related North American or South American group. Divergence of the two Doellingeria-Eucephalus subclades may have occurred in association with northward migration from South American ancestors. We combine these two genera under the older of the two names, Doellingeria, and propose 12 new combinations (10 species and two varieties) for all species of Eucephalus.

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Mimaporia, a new genus of Epicopeiidae (Lepidoptera), with description of a new species from Vietnam

Zootaxa ◽

10.11646/zootaxa.4254.5.3 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4254 (5) ◽

pp. 537 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

CHIA-HSUAN WEI ◽

SHEN-HORN YEN

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

New Genus ◽

Sequence Data ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Taxonomic Status ◽

Sister Group ◽

Morphological Evidence ◽

New Taxon ◽

The Family ◽

A New Species

The Epicopeiidae is a small geometroid family distributed in the East Palaearctic and Oriental regions. It exhibits high morphological diversity in body size and wing shape, while their wing patterns involve in various complex mimicry rings. In the present study, we attempted to describe a new genus, and a new species from Vietnam, with comments on two assumed congeneric novel species from China and India. To address its phylogenetic affinity, we reconstructed the phylogeny of the family by using sequence data of COI, EF-1α, and 28S gene regions obtained from seven genera of Epicopeiidae with Pseudobiston pinratanai as the outgroup. We also compared the morphology of the new taxon to other epicopeiid genera to affirm its taxonomic status. The results suggest that the undescribed taxon deserve a new genus, namely Mimaporia gen. n. The species from Vietnam, Mimaporia hmong sp. n., is described as new to science. Under different tree building strategies, the new genus is the sister group of either Chatamla Moore, 1881 or Parabraxas Leech, 1897. The morphological evidence, which was not included in phylogenetic analyses, however, suggests its potential affinity with Burmeia Minet, 2003. This study also provides the first, although preliminary, molecular phylogeny of the family on which the revised systematics and interpretation of character evolution can be based.

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On a remarkable new species of <i>Tharsis</i>, a Late Jurassic teleostean fish from southern Germany: its morphology and phylogenetic relationships

Fossil Record ◽

10.5194/fr-22-1-2019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 1-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Gloria Arratia ◽

Hans-Peter Schultze ◽

Helmut Tischlinger

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

Late Jurassic ◽

Strong Support ◽

Sister Group ◽

Common Species ◽

Upper Jurassic ◽

Morphological Characters ◽

Morphological Description ◽

Sister Group Relationship ◽

Southern Germany

Abstract. A complete morphological description, as preservation permits, is provided for a new Late Jurassic fish species (Tharsis elleri) together with a revision and comparison of some morphological features of Tharsis dubius, one of the most common species from the Solnhofen limestone, southern Germany. An emended diagnosis of the genus Tharsis – now including two species – is presented. The new species is characterized by a combination of morphological characters, such as the presence of a complete sclerotic ring formed by two bones placed anterior and posterior to the eye, a moderately short lower jaw with quadrate-mandibular articulation below the anterior half of the orbit, caudal vertebrae with neural and haemal arches fused to their respective vertebral centrum, and parapophyses fused to their respective centrum. A phylogenetic analysis based on 198 characters and 43 taxa is performed. Following the phylogenetic hypothesis, the sister-group relationship Ascalaboidae plus more advanced teleosts stands above the node of Leptolepis coryphaenoides. Both nodes have strong support among teleosts. The results confirm the inclusion of Ascalabos, Ebertichthys and Tharsis as members of this extinct family. Tharsis elleri n. sp. (LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:6434E6F5-2DDD-48CF-A2B1-827495FE46E6, date: 13 December 2018) is so far restricted to one Upper Jurassic German locality – Wegscheid Quarry near Schernfeld, Eichstätt – whereas Tharsis dubius is known not only from Wegscheid Quarry, but also from different localities in the Upper Jurassic of Bavaria, Germany, and Cerin in France.

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Placozoa and Cnidaria are sister taxa

10.1101/200972 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Christopher E. Laumer ◽

Harald Gruber-Vodicka ◽

Michael G. Hadfield ◽

Vicki B. Pearse ◽

Ana Riesgo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Strong Support ◽

Sister Group ◽

Sister Group Relationship ◽

Large Dataset ◽

Animal Evolution ◽

Phylogenetic Placement ◽

The Matrix ◽

Show Evidence ◽

Animal Phylogeny ◽

Reduced Forms

AbstractThe phylogenetic placement of the morphologically simple placozoans is crucial to understanding the evolution of complex animal traits. Here, we examine the influence of adding new genomes from placozoans to a large dataset designed to study the deepest splits in the animal phylogeny. Using site-heterogeneous substitution models, we show that it is possible to obtain strong support, in both amino acid and reduced-alphabet matrices, for either a sister-group relationship between Cnidaria and Placozoa, or for Cnidaria and Bilateria (=Planulozoa), also seen in most published work to date, depending on the orthologues selected to construct the matrix. We demonstrate that a majority of genes show evidence of compositional heterogeneity, and that the support for Planulozoa can be assigned to this source of systematic error. In interpreting this placozoan-cnidarian clade, we caution against a peremptory reading of placozoans as secondarily reduced forms of little relevance to broader discussions of early animal evolution.

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Discovery of a new family of amphibians from northeast India with ancient links to Africa

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2012.0150 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 279 (1737) ◽

pp. 2396-2401 ◽

Cited By ~ 59

Author(s):

Rachunliu G. Kamei ◽

Diego San Mauro ◽

David J. Gower ◽

Ines Van Bocxlaer ◽

Emma Sherratt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dna Sequences ◽

Nuclear Dna ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Sister Group ◽

Northeast India ◽

Sister Group Relationship ◽

New Family ◽

Ancient Lineage ◽

Molecular Phylogenetic ◽

Threatened Habitats

The limbless, primarily soil-dwelling and tropical caecilian amphibians (Gymnophiona) comprise the least known order of tetrapods. On the basis of unprecedented extensive fieldwork, we report the discovery of a previously overlooked, ancient lineage and radiation of caecilians from threatened habitats in the underexplored states of northeast India. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of mitogenomic and nuclear DNA sequences, and comparative cranial anatomy indicate an unexpected sister-group relationship with the exclusively African family Herpelidae. Relaxed molecular clock analyses indicate that these lineages diverged in the Early Cretaceous, about 140 Ma. The discovery adds a major branch to the amphibian tree of life and sheds light on both the evolution and biogeography of caecilians and the biotic history of northeast India—an area generally interpreted as a gateway between biodiversity hotspots rather than a distinct biogeographic unit with its own ancient endemics. Because of its distinctive morphology, inferred age and phylogenetic relationships, we recognize the newly discovered caecilian radiation as a new family of modern amphibians.

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Molecular and morphological evidence reveal a new genus and species in Auriculariales from tropical China

MycoKeys ◽

10.3897/mycokeys.35.25271 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 27-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Hai-Sheng Yuan ◽

Xu Lu ◽

Cony Decock

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

Dna Sequences ◽

Type Species ◽

New Genus ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Strong Support ◽

Morphological Characteristics ◽

Morphological Evidence ◽

New Genus And Species ◽

Tropical China

Grammatuslabyrinthinusgen. et sp. nov. is proposed based on DNA sequences data and morphological characteristics. It is known so far from southern, tropical China. The new species is characterised by an annual, resupinate basidiocarp with a shallow, subporoid hymenophore, a hymenium restricted to the bottom of the tubes, a dimitic hyphal system, presence of encrusted skeletocystidia and dendrohyphidia, longitudinally septate basidia and smooth, oblong-ellipsoid to cylindrical, acyanophilous basidiospores. Phylogenetic analyses based on ITS + nLSU DNA sequences data indicate that G.labyrinthinus belongs to Auriculariaceae in which it has an isolated position. Phylogenetic inferences show G.labyrinthinus to be related to Heteroradulum. However, the ITS sequences similarity between G.labyrinthinus and H.kmetii, the type species of Heteroradulum, were 89.84% and support the establishment of the new genus. Inversely, Heteroradulumsemis clustered with G.labyrinthinus with strong support and it is transferred to Grammatus.

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Phylogenetics and revised taxonomy of the Australian freshwater cod genus, Maccullochella (Percichthyidae)

Marine and Freshwater Research ◽

10.1071/mf09145 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 61 (9) ◽

pp. 980 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Catherine J. Nock ◽

Martin S. Elphinstone ◽

Stuart J. Rowland ◽

Peter R. Baverstock

Keyword(s):

Sequence Data ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Strong Support ◽

Taxonomic Revision ◽

Protein Coding ◽

Protein Coding Genes ◽

Allopatric Populations ◽

Murray Darling Basin ◽

Murray Cod ◽

Australian Freshwater

Determining the phylogenetic and taxonomic relationships among allopatric populations can be difficult, especially when divergence is recent and morphology is conserved. We used mitochondrial sequence data from the control region and three protein-coding genes (1253 bp in total) and genotypes determined at 13 microsatellite loci to examine the evolutionary relationships among Australia’s largest freshwater fish, the Murray cod, Maccullochella peelii peelii, from the inland Murray–Darling Basin, and its allopatric sister taxa from coastal drainages, the eastern freshwater cod, M. ikei, and Mary River cod, M. peelii mariensis. Phylogenetic analyses provided strong support for taxon-specific clades, with a clade containing both of the eastern taxa reciprocally monophyletic to M. peelii peelii, suggesting a more recent common ancestry between M. ikei and M. peelii mariensis than between the M. peelii subspecies. This finding conflicts with the existing taxonomy and suggests that ancestral Maccullochella crossed the Great Dividing Range in the Pleistocene and subsequently diverged in eastern coastal drainages. Evidence from the present study, in combination with previous morphological and allozymatic data, demonstrates that all extant taxa are genetically and morphologically distinct. The taxonomy of Maccullochella is revised, with Mary River cod now recognised as a species, Maccullochella mariensis, a sister species to eastern freshwater cod, M. ikei. As a result of the taxonomic revision, Murray cod is M. peelii.

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New insights on Hygrophorus penarioides and H. penarius (Agaricales, Hygrophoraceae) from Hungary

Phytotaxa ◽

10.11646/phytotaxa.392.2.2 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 392 (2) ◽

pp. 127

Author(s):

ERIK ZAJTA ◽

TORDA VARGA ◽

GÁBOR M KOVÁCS ◽

BÁLINT DIMA

Keyword(s):

Sequence Variation ◽

Geographical Origin ◽

Phylogenetic Analyses ◽

Morphological Variability ◽

Strong Support ◽

Morphological Evidence ◽

Its2 Region ◽

Herbarium Specimens ◽

Nrdna Its ◽

Nrdna Its Regions

The ectomycorrhiza forming basidiomycete Hygrophorus penarius sensu lato was recognized as two species, H. penarioides and H. penarius in 2007 based on molecular and morphological evidence. However, this was based on few collections of restricted geographical origin and no studies have performed molecular analysis on additional specimens to date.To this end we sequenced the nrDNA ITS regions of 29 H. penarius s. l. collections from Hungary and Slovakia and analysed with collections from previous studies. Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic analyses confirmed the separation of H. penarioides and H. penarius in two clades with the majority of the specimens belonging to H. penarioides and only three to H. penarius. Despite the strong support of the lineages, there was no coherent difference in basidiome and spore traits. We also provide the first evidence of an intraspecific nrDNA sequence variation in the ITS2 region of H. penarioides together with morphological variability that has not been reported to date.On the basis of our result, we conclude that the Quercus associated H. penarioides is far more common in Hungary than the Fagus associated H. penarius and we suggest that identification of the two species in the absence of DNA sequence analysis should be handled with caution, especially when herbarium specimens are examined.

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