A taxonomic review of the centipede genus Scolopendra Linnaeus, 1758 (Scolopendromorpha, Scolopendridae) in mainland Southeast Asia, with description of a new species from Laos

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Exploring Phylogenetic Relationships within Myriapoda and the Effects of Matrix Composition and Occupancy on Phylogenomic Reconstruction

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The Centipede Genus Scolopendra in Mainland Southeast Asia: Molecular Phylogenetics, Geometric Morphometrics and External Morphology as Tools for Species Delimitation

Copyright: © 2015 The PLOS ONE Staff. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License [4.0], which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file S1 is the corrected, republished version of the article. The attached file S2 is the original, uncorrected version of the article

A New Chytridiomycete Fungus Intermixed with Crustacean Resting Eggs in a 407-Million-Year-Old Continental Freshwater Environment

Copyright: © 2016 Strullu-Derrien et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Disparate compound eyes of Cambrian radiodonts reveal their developmental growth mode and diverse visual ecology

Radiodonts are nektonic stem-group euarthropods that played various trophic roles in Paleozoic marine ecosystems, but information on their vision is limited. Optical details exist only in one species from the Cambrian Emu Bay Shale of Australia, here assigned to Anomalocaris aff. canadensis. We identify another type of radiodont compound eye from this deposit, belonging to ‘Anomalocaris’ briggsi. This ≤4-cm sessile eye has >13,000 lenses and a dorsally oriented acute zone. In both taxa, lenses were added marginally and increased in size and number throughout development, as in many crown-group euarthropods. Both species’ eyes conform to their inferred lifestyles: The macrophagous predator A. aff. canadensis has acute stalked eyes (>24,000 lenses each) adapted for hunting in well-lit waters, whereas the suspension-feeding ‘A.’ briggsi could detect plankton in dim down-welling light. Radiodont eyes further demonstrate the group’s anatomical and ecological diversity and reinforce the crucial role of vision in early animal ecosystems.Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited

Phylogeny of Lithobiidae Newport, 1844, with emphasis on the megadiverse genus Lithobius Leach, 1814 (Myriapoda, Chilopoda)

Abstract Phylogenetic analyses based on molecular and morphological data were conducted to shed light on relationships within the mostly Palaearctic/Oriental centipede family Lithobiidae, with a particular focus on the Palaearctic genus Lithobius Leach, 1814 (Lithobiidae, Lithobiomorpha), which contains >500 species and subspecies. Previous studies based on morphological data resolved Lithobius as nonmonophyletic, but molecular-based phylogenetic analyses have until now sampled few species. To elucidate species inter-relationships of the genus, test the validity of its classification into subgenera, and infer its relationships with other Lithobiidae, we obtained molecular data (nuclear markers: 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA; mitochondrial markers: 16S rRNA, COI) and 61 morphological characters for 44 species of Lithobius representing four of its eight subgenera and nine other representatives of Lithobiidae. The data were analyzed phylogenetically using maximum-likelihood, parsimony and Bayesian inference. This study suggests that (i) a close relationship between L. giganteus and the pterygotergine Disphaerobius loricatus highlighted in recent morphological analyses is also strongly supported by molecular data, and Pterygoterginae is formally synonymized with Lithobiinae; (ii) the Oriental/Australian genus Australobius is consistently resolved as sister group to all other sampled Lithobiidae by the molecular and combined data; (iii) the subfamily Ethopolyinae may be paraphyletic; (iv) the genus Lithobius is nonmonophyletic; (v) the subgenera Lithobius, Sigibius and Monotarsobius are nonmonophyletic and should not be used in future taxonomic studies; and (vi) there are instances of cryptic species and cases in which subspecies should be elevated to full species status, as identified for some European taxa within Lithobius

Ancestral morphology of Ecdysozoa constrained by an early Cambrian stem group ecdysozoan

This is the final version. Available on open access from BMC via the DOI in this recordAvailability of data and materials: The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The phylogenetic data matrix is included as a downloadable NEXUS file (Additional File 7).Background: Ecdysozoa are the moulting protostomes, including arthropods, tardigrades, and nematodes. Both the molecular and fossil records indicate that Ecdysozoa is an ancient group originating in the terminal Proterozoic, and exceptional fossil biotas show their dominance and diversity at the beginning of the Phanerozoic. However, the nature of the ecdysozoan common ancestor has been difficult to ascertain due to the extreme morphological diversity of extant Ecdysozoa, and the lack of early diverging taxa in ancient fossil biotas. Results: Here we re-describe Acosmia maotiania from the early Cambrian Chengjiang Biota of Yunnan Province, China and assign it to stem group Ecdysozoa. Acosmia features a two-part body, with an anterior proboscis bearing a terminal mouth and muscular pharynx, and a posterior annulated trunk with a through gut. Morphological phylogenetic analyses of the protostomes using parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference, with coding informed by published experimental decay studies, each placed Acosmia as sister taxon to Cycloneuralia + Panarthropoda—i.e. stem group Ecdysozoa. Ancestral state probabilities were calculated for key ecdysozoan nodes, in order to test characters inferred from fossils to be ancestral for Ecdysozoa. Results support an ancestor of crown group ecdysozoans sharing an annulated vermiform body with a terminal mouth like Acosmia, but also possessing the pharyngeal armature and circumoral structures characteristic of Cambrian cycloneuralians and lobopodians. Conclusions: Acosmia is the first taxon placed in the ecdysozoan stem group and provides a constraint to test hypotheses on the early evolution of Ecdysozoa. Our study suggests acquisition of pharyngeal armature, and therefore a change in feeding strategy (e.g. predation), may have characterised the origin and radiation of crown group ecdysozoans from Acosmia-like ancestors.Yunnan provincial research grantNatural Environment Research Council (NERC

Phylogeny of Lithobiidae Newport, 1844, with emphasis on the megadiverse genus Lithobius Leach, 1814 (Myriapoda, Chilopoda)

Phylogenetic analyses based on molecular and morphological data were conducted to shed light on relationships within the mostly Palaearctic/Oriental centipede family Lithobiidae, with a particular focus on the Palaearctic genus Lithobius Leach, 1814 (Lithobiidae, Lithobiomorpha), which contains >500 species and subspecies. Previous studies based on morphological data resolved Lithobius as nonmonophyletic, but molecular-based phylogenetic analyses have until now sampled few species. To elucidate species inter-relationships of the genus, test the validity of its classification into subgenera, and infer its relationships with other Lithobiidae, we obtained molecular data (nuclear markers: 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA; mitochondrial markers: 16S rRNA, COI) and 61 morphological characters for 44 species of Lithobius representing four of its eight subgenera and nine other representatives of Lithobiidae. The data were analyzed phylogenetically using maximum-likelihood, parsimony and Bayesian inference. This study suggests that (i) a close relationship between L. giganteus and the pterygotergine Disphaerobius loricatus highlighted in recent morphological analyses is also strongly supported by molecular data, and Pterygoterginae is formally synonymized with Lithobiinae; (ii) the Oriental/Australian genus Australobius is consistently resolved as sister group to all other sampled Lithobiidae by the molecular and combined data; (iii) the subfamily Ethopolyinae may be paraphyletic; (iv) the genus Lithobius is nonmonophyletic; (v) the subgenera Lithobius, Sigibius and Monotarsobius are nonmonophyletic and should not be used in future taxonomic studies; and (vi) there are instances of cryptic species and cases in which subspecies should be elevated to full species status, as identified for some European taxa within Lithobius.This is an open access article, available to all readers online, published under a creative commons licensing (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The attached file is the published version of the article

A Tube-Dwelling Early Cambrian Lobopodian

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordData and Code Availability: The phylogenetic dataset compiled for this study is included (Data S1B), and no other datasets or code were analyzed.Facivermis yunnanicus [1, 2] is an enigmatic worm-like animal from the early Cambrian Chengjiang Biota of Yunnan Province, China. It is a small (<10 cm) bilaterian with five pairs of spiny anterior arms, an elongated body, and a swollen posterior end. The unusual morphology of Facivermis has prompted a history of diverse taxonomic interpretations, including among annelids [1, 3], lophophorates [4], and pentastomids [5]. However, in other studies, Facivermis is considered to be more similar to lobopodians [2, 6–8]—the fossil grade from which modern panarthropods (arthropods, onychophorans, and tardigrades) are derived. In these studies, Facivermis is thought to be intermediate between cycloneuralian worms and lobopodians. Facivermis has therefore been suggested to represent an early endobenthic-epibenthic panarthropod transition [6] and to provide crucial insights into the origin of paired appendages [2]. However, the systematic affinity of Facivermis was poorly supported in a previous phylogeny [6], partially due to incomplete understanding of its morphology. Therefore, the evolutionary significance of Facivermis remains unresolved. In this study, we re-examine Facivermis from new material and the holotype, leading to the discovery of several new morphological features, such as paired eyes on the head and a dwelling tube. Comprehensive phylogenetic analyses using parsimony, Bayesian inference, and maximum likelihood all support Facivermis as a luolishaniid in a derived position within the onychophoran stem group rather than as a basal panarthropod. In contrast to previous studies, we therefore conclude that Facivermis provides a rare early Cambrian example of secondary loss to accommodate a highly specialized tube-dwelling lifestyle. Facivermis is an enigmatic worm from the early Cambrian Chengjiang Biota. Here, Howard et al. identify Facivermis as a tube-dwelling lobopodian and demonstrate that its worm-like appearance was a secondary adaptation. This shows that Facivermis was not a basal, ancestrally worm-like panarthropod, as some studies suggest.Thousand Youth Talents Plan of ChinaYunnan provincial research grantChinese Academy of SciencesNatural Environment Research Council (NERC

Exites in Cambrian arthropods and homology of arthropod limb branches

Abstract: The last common ancestor of all living arthropods had biramous postantennal appendages, with an endopodite and exopodite branching off the limb base. Morphological evidence for homology of these rami between crustaceans and chelicerates has, however, been challenged by data from clonal composition and from knockout of leg patterning genes. Cambrian arthropod fossils have been cited as providing support for competing hypotheses about biramy but have shed little light on additional lateral outgrowths, known as exites. Here we draw on microtomographic imaging of the Cambrian great-appendage arthropod Leanchoilia to reveal a previously undetected exite at the base of most appendages, composed of overlapping lamellae. A morphologically similar, and we infer homologous, exite is documented in the same position in members of the trilobite-allied Artiopoda. This early Cambrian exite morphology supplements an emerging picture from gene expression that exites may have a deeper origin in arthropod phylogeny than has been appreciated.Copyright © The Authors, 2021. This is an open access article, available to all readers online, published under a creative commons licensing (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The attached file is the published version of the article