A new species of the genus Lightiella: the first record of Cephalocarida (Crustacea) in Europe |
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Authors: | MARCELLA CARCUPINO ANTONELLO FLORIS ALBERTO ADDIS ALBERTO CASTELLI MARCO CURINI-GALLETTI |
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Institution: | Dipartimento di Zoologia e Antropologia Biologica, Universitèdi Sassari, Via Muroni 25, Sassari, Italy; Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Uomo e dell'Ambiente, Universitèdi Pisa, Via Volta 6, Pisa, Italy |
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Abstract: | A new species of Cephalocarida belonging to the genus Lightiella is described. Like all known species of Lightiella , the new species is characterized by reduction of trunk segment 8, which also lacks both pleura and thoracopods. The diagnostic characters of the species are: (1) one seta on the inner distal corner of the penultimate endopodal segment of second maxilla and thoracopods 1–5; (2) only one claw on the distal segment of the endopod of thoracopod 6. A cladistic analysis of 27 morphological characters was used to estimate the phylogeny of all species of Lightiella , with all other cephalocarid species used as outgroups. The discovery of this species in the Mediterranean fills a gap in the distribution of the genus and of the entire class. © 2006 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2006, 148 , 209–220. |
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Keywords: | cladistic analysis Mediterranean thoracopod morphology systematics |
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