Monophyly of brachiopods and phoronids: reconciliation of molecular evidence with Linnaean classification (the subphylum Phoroniformea nov.)

Molecular phylogenetic analyses of aligned 18S rDNA gene sequences from articulate and inarticulate brachiopods representing all major extant lineages, an enhanced set of phoronids and several unrelated protostome taxa, confirm previous indications that in such data, brachiopod and phoronids form a well-supported clade that (on previous evidence) is unambiguously affiliated with protostomes rather than deuterostomes. Within the brachiopod-phoronid clade, an association between phoronids and inarticulate brachiopods is moderately well supported, whilst a close relationship between phoronids and craniid inarticulates is weakly indicated. Brachiopod-phoronid monophyly is reconciled with the most recent Linnaean classification of brachiopods by abolition of the phylum Phoronida and rediagnosis of the phylum Brachiopoda to include tubiculous, shell-less forms. Recognition that brachiopods and phoronids are close genealogical allies of protostome phyla such as molluscs and annelids, but are much more distantly related to deuterostome phyla such as echinoderms and chordates, implies either (or both) that the morphology and ontogeny of blastopore, mesoderm and coelom formation have been widely misreported or misinterpreted, or that these characters have been subject to extensive homoplasy. This inference, if true, undermines virtually all morphology-based reconstructions of phylogeny made during the past century or more

Ordering of geometrically frustrated classical and quantum Ising magnets

A systematic study of both classical and quantum geometric frustrated Ising models with a competing ordering mechanism is reported in this paper. The ordering comes in the classical case from a coupling of 2D layers and in the quantum model from the quantum dynamics induced by a transverse field. By mapping the Ising models on a triangular lattice to elastic lattices of non-crossing strings, we derive an exact relation between the spin variables and the displacement field of the strings. Using this map both for the classical (2+1)D stacked model and the quantum frustrated 2D system, we obtain a microscopic derivation of an effective Hamiltonian which was proposed before on phenomenological grounds within a Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson approach. In contrast to the latter approach, our derivation provides the coupling constants and hence the entire transverse field--versus--temperature phase diagram can be deduced, including the universality classes of both the quantum and the finite--temperature transitions. The structure of the ordered phase is obtained from a detailed entropy argument. We compare our predictions to recent simulations of the quantum system and find good agreement. We also analyze the connections to a dimer model on the hexagonal lattice and its height profile representation, providing a simple derivation of the continuum free energy and a physical explanation for the universality of the stiffness of the height profile for anisotropic couplings.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Disorder Driven Roughening Transitions of Elastic Manifolds and Periodic Elastic Media

The simultaneous effect of both disorder and crystal-lattice pinning on the equilibrium behavior of oriented elastic objects is studied using scaling arguments and a functional renormalization group technique. Our analysis applies to elastic manifolds, e.g., interfaces, as well as to periodic elastic media, e.g., charge-density waves or flux-line lattices. The competition between both pinning mechanisms leads to a continuous, disorder driven roughening transition between a flat state where the mean relative displacement saturates on large scales and a rough state with diverging relative displacement. The transition can be approached by changing the impurity concentration or, indirectly, by tuning the temperature since the pinning strengths of the random and crystal potential have in general a different temperature dependence. For D dimensional elastic manifolds interacting with either random-field or random-bond disorder a transition exists for 2<D<4, and the critical exponents are obtained to lowest order in \epsilon=4-D. At the transition, the manifolds show a superuniversal logarithmic roughness. Dipolar interactions render lattice effects relevant also in the physical case of D=2. For periodic elastic media, a roughening transition exists only if the ratio p of the periodicities of the medium and the crystal lattice exceeds the critical value p_c=6/\pi\sqrt{\epsilon}. For p<p_c the medium is always flat. Critical exponents are calculated in a double expansion in \mu=p^2/p_c^2-1 and \epsilon=4-D and fulfill the scaling relations of random field models.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure

The Mediterranean deep-sea fauna: historical evolution, bathymetric variations and geographical changes

The deep-water fauna of the Mediterranean is characterized by an absence of distinctive characteristics and by a relative impoverishment. Both are a result of events after the Messinian salinity crisis (Late Miocene). The three main classes of phenomena involved in producing or recording these effects are analysed and discussed: - Historical: Sequential faunal changes during the Pliocene and thereafter in particular those during the Quaternary glaciations and still in progress. - Bathymetric: Changes in the vertical aspects of the Bathyal and Abyssal zones that took place under peculiar conditions, i.e. homothermy, a relative oligotrophy, the barrier of the Gibraltar sill, and water mass movement. The deeper the habitat of a species in the Mediterranean, the more extensive is its distribution elsewhere. - Geographical: There are strong affinities and relationships between Mediterranean and Atlantic faunas. Endemic species remain a biogeographical problem. Species always become smaller in size eastward where they occupy a progressively deeper habitat. Thus, the existing deep Mediterranean Sea appears to be younger than any other deep-sea constituent of the World Ocean