Urstylidae – a new family of abyssal isopods (Crustacea: Asellota) and its phylogenetic implications |
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Authors: | Torben Riehl George D F Wilson Marina V Malyutina |
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Institution: | 1. Biocenter Grindel & Zoological Museum, University of Hamburg, , 20146 Hamburg, Germany;2. Marine Invertebrates, Australian Museum, , Sydney, NSW, 2010 Australia;3. A.V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology, , 690041 Vladivostok, Russia;4. Far East Federal University, , Vladivostok, Russia |
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Abstract: | We report three new species of isopod crustaceans that belong to a rare higher taxon of asellote Isopoda. This taxon does not fit into current classifications. The isopods occurred in abyssal soft sediments, near manganese nodules, and in the vicinity of hydrothermal vents. Given their wide spatial occurrence across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, a cosmopolitan distribution is assumed. A cladistic analysis revealed a close relationship with the Macrostylidae, a common representative of the deep‐sea macrofauna. Analyses of character evolution across the Janiroidea showed sufficient synapomorphies to justify the erection of U rstylis gen. nov. and the new family Urstylidae based on the three new species. All taxa are described in this paper. Urstylidae is characterized, amongst other apomorphies, by an elongate habitus with spade‐like head; uropods are long, styliform; one pleonite is free; antennal merus and carpus are relatively short; the first pereopod is carpo‐propodosubchelate, and more robust and shorter than pereopod II. Several characters, such as the pereopods’ posterior scale‐like claw that basally encloses the distal sensilla may be interpreted as ancestral when compared to the situation in the highly derived Macrostylidae. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London |
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Keywords: | benthos cladistics deep sea Janiroidea Macrostylidae parsimony taxonomy Urstylis solicopia sp nov Urstylis thiotyntlus sp nov Urstylis zapiola sp nov |
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