Soft sponges with tricky tree: On the phylogeny of dictyoceratid sponges |
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Authors: | Dirk Erpenbeck Adrian Galitz Merrick Ekins Steve de C Cook Rob W M van Soest John N A Hooper Gert Wörheide |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Earth- and Environmental Sciences, Palaeontology & Geobiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany;2. Biodiversity Program, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane, QLD, Australia;3. Formerly Department of Zoology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand;4. Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands;5. Biodiversity Program, Queensland Museum, South Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, Australia |
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Abstract: | Keratose (horny) sponges constitute a very difficult group of Porifera in terms of taxonomy due to their paucity of diagnostic morphological features. (Most) keratose sponges possess no mineral skeletal elements, but an arrangement of organic (spongin) fibers, with little taxonomic or phylogenetic information. Molecular phylogenetics have targeted this evolutionary and biochemically important lineage numerous times, but the conservative nature of popular markers combined with ambiguous identification of the sponge material has so far prevented any robust phylogeny. In the following study, we provide a phylogenetic hypothesis of the keratose order Dictyoceratida based on nuclear markers of higher resolution potential (ITS and 28S C-region), and particularly aim for the inclusion of type specimens as reference material. Our results are compared with previously published data of CO1, 18S, and 28S (D3-D5) data, and indicate the paraphyly of the largest dictyoceratid family, the Thorectidae, due to a sister group relationship of its subfamily Phyllospongiinae with Family Spongiidae. Irciniidae can be recovered as monophyletic. Results on genus level and implications on phylogenetic signals of the most frequently described morphological characters are discussed. |
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Keywords: | Dictyoceratida Keratosa Porifera Spongiidae Thorectidae |
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