Multiple origins of deep-sea Asellota (Crustacea: Isopoda) from shallow waters revealed by molecular data.

ABSTRACT: The Asellota are a highly variable group of Isopoda with many species in freshwater and marine shallow-water environments. However, in the deep sea, they show their most impressive radiation with a broad range of astonishing morphological adaptations and bizarre body forms. Nevertheless, the evolution and phylogeny of the deep-sea Asellota are poorly known because of difficulties in scoring morphological characters. In this study, the molecular phylogeny of the Asellota is evaluated for 15 marine shallow-water species and 101 deep-sea species, using complete 18S and partial 28S rDNA gene sequences. Our molecular data support the monophyly of most deep-sea families and give evidence for a multiple colonization of the deep sea by at least four major lineages of asellote isopods. According to

SUBMITTER: Raupach MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2664356 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature