engleski

System inconsistencies: investigating the phylogeny of calanoid copepods

Calanoida, as part of the most abundant taxa of the meso-zooplankton community, plays and undeniably important role in the marine food-chain and nutrient circulation. The number of species are usually underestimated, mostly due to complicated identification characters and the lack of taxonomic experts. With the combination of molecular methods and standard approaches, it is getting easier to uncover the hidden diversity within the group. The available genetic databases show that the 185 Calanoid species of the Mediterranean are still underrepresented (16%) even in the most commonly used marker (COI). Our project “SpaTeGen” is focused on building a database of genetic barcodes, covering the blank spots using a handful of markers (COI, 18S, 5.8S, ITS2, 28S), to help future species identification and biodiversity monitoring of the Adriatic region. Our knowledge must also be broadened for a better understanding of their evolutionary connections. Our preliminary results show that phylogeny based on genetic markers does not seem to support currently accepted systematics and that three calanoid families (Aetideidae, Euchaetidae and Clausocalanidae) might be polyphyletic.

biodiversity ; calanoida ; barcoding ; molecular phylogeny

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