A new nemertean species: what are the useful characters for ribbon worm descriptions?

• Published in: Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom Vol. 94; no. 2; pp. 317 - 330
• Main Authors: Strand, Malin, Herrera-Bachiller, Alfonso, Nygren, Arne, Kånneby, Tobias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.03.2014
• Subjects: Amphiporus; Bayesian analysis; Biological Sciences; Biological Systematics; Biologisk systematik; Biologiska vetenskaper; Characters; CHECKLIST; COI; Description; Diversity of life; Environmental Sciences; GENERA; Histology; Hoplonemertea; Livets mångfald; Marine; Marine invertebrates; MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD; Miljövetenskap; MIXED MODELS; Morphology; MRBAYES; mt-DNA; Nemertea; PHYLOGENY; PHYLUM NEMERTEA; REDESCRIPTION; TAXA; TAXONOMY; Zoologi; Zoology; Norway; characters; mt-DNA; description; Hoplonemertea; morphology; COI
• ISSN: 0025-3154; 1469-7769; 1469-7769
• DOI: 10.1017/S002531541300146X

In recent years the Norwegian Taxonomy Initiative started thorough investigations of poorly known organism groups. In this context, several marine inventories have rendered a number of marine invertebrate species new to science. Within the phylum Nemertea (ribbon worms) a characteristic hoplonemertean was encountered on two different occasions. We describe the new species Amphiporus rectangulus sp. nov. with a combination of histology and DNA data (COI). For the morphological description we use a previously proposed character matrix and, in a context given by the results, also provide a brief discussion on benefits and drawbacks with both methods. We argue that for small animals with soft bodies external characters can be more informative than hitherto expected.