Reverse taxonomy applied to the Brachionus calyciflorus cryptic species complex: Morphometric analysis confirms species delimitations revealed by molecular phylogenetic analysis and allows the (re) description of four species.

The discovery and exploration of cryptic species have been profoundly expedited thanks to developments in molecular biology and phylogenetics. In this study, we apply a reverse taxonomy approach to the Brachionus calyciflorus species complex, a commonly studied freshwater monogonont rotifer. By combining phylogenetic, morphometric and morphological analyses, we confirm the existence of four cryptic species that have been recently suggested by a molecular study. Based on these results and according to an exhaustive review of the taxonomic literature, we name each of these four species and provide their taxonomic description alongside a diagnostic key.

Keywords

integrative taxonomy * plicatilis rotifera * dna taxonomy * diversity

Citation

PLOS ONE. 2018, vol. 13, issue 9, p. 250-261.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0203168

Document type

Peer-reviewed

Document version

Published version

Language of document

en

Document licence

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/