143316 - The first insight into the patterns of size and shape variation of a microcerberid.pdf (1.18 MB)
The first insight into the patterns of size and shape variation of a microcerberid isopod
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-20, 21:49 authored by Kim, J, Lee, W, Ivana KaranovicCryptic species are a biological phenomenon only recently recognized due to progress in molecular studies. They pose a significant challenge to conventional taxonomic work since these species manifest low morphological differences, but considerable genetic disparity. New taxonomic methods are in development but have yet to be tested for many animal groups. Isopods belonging to the suborder Microcerberidea are one such group. The Asian microcerberid isopod, Coxicerberus fukudai (Ito, 1974), is a major component of marine interstitial fauna with suspected cryptic species inhabiting Japan and Korea. We chose six Korean populations with high molecular interpopulations divergence and applied 2D landmark-based geometric morphometrics to cephalic sensilla, pleonal points, and male pleopod II. This quantitative approach allowed us to study interpopulation size and shape variations, morphospace structure, and whether the morphological pattern mirrored the genetic species. We determined that a high degree of interpopulation size variation significantly influences shape changes. Once we removed the allometric effect, the size-corrected male pleopod II shape variations yielded a new species, C. jangsaensis sp. nov. At the same time, we were able to resolve the C. fukadai species complex.
History
Publication title
WaterVolume
13Issue
4Article number
515Number
515Pagination
1-17ISSN
2073-4441Department/School
Institute for Marine and Antarctic StudiesPublisher
MDPIAGPlace of publication
SwitzerlandRights statement
Copyright 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Repository Status
- Open