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      New taxa and revisionary systematics of alcyonacean octocorals from the Pacific coast of North America (Cnidaria, Anthozoa)

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      ZooKeys
      Pensoft Publishers
      Alcyonium, Cryptophyton, Gersemia, Octocorallia, northeastern Pacific, plexaurid gorgonian, soft corals, taxonomy

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          Abstract

          Abstract

          A taxonomic assessment of four species of octocorals from the northeastern Pacific Ocean (British Columbia to California) is provided. Included here are a new species of clavulariid stolonifieran Cryptophyton, a new species of the nephtheid soft coral Gersemia , an undetermined species of soft coral in the genus Alcyonium that has been referred in the literature by several other names, and a new genus is named for a plexaurid sea fan originally described in the Indo-Pacific genus Euplexaura . Discussions are included that compare the species to related taxa, or provide revisionary assessments.

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          A molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Octocorallia (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) based on mitochondrial protein-coding sequences.

          Despite their abundance and ecological importance in a wide variety of shallow and deep water marine communities, octocorals (soft corals, sea fans, and sea pens) are a group whose taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships remain poorly known and little studied. The group is currently divided into three orders (O: Alcyonacea, Pennatulacea, and Helioporacea); the large O. Alcyonacea (soft corals and sea fans) is further subdivided into six sub-ordinal groups on the basis of skeletal composition and colony growth form. We used 1429bp of two mitochondrial protein-coding genes, ND2 and msh1, to construct a phylogeny for 103 octocoral genera representing 28 families. In agreement with a previous 18S rDNA phylogeny, our results support a division of Octocorallia into two major clades plus a third, minor clade. We found one large clade (Holaxonia-Alcyoniina) comprising the sea fan sub-order Holaxonia and the majority of soft corals, and a second clade (Calcaxonia-Pennatulacea) comprising sea pens (O. Pennatulacea) and the sea fan sub-order Calcaxonia. Taxa belonging to the sea fan group Scleraxonia and the soft coral family Alcyoniidae were divided among the Holaxonia-Alcyoniina clade and a third, small clade (Anthomastus-Corallium) whose relationship to the two major clades was unresolved. In contrast to the previous studies, we found sea pens to be monophyletic but nested within Calcaxonia; our analyses support the sea fan family Ellisellidae as the sister taxon to the sea pens. We are unable to reject the hypothesis that the calcaxonian and holaxonian skeletal axes each arose once and suggest that the skeletal axis of sea pens is derived from that of Calcaxonia. Topology tests rejected the monophyly of sub-ordinal groups Alcyoniina, Scleraxonia, and Stolonifera, as well as 9 of 14 families for which we sampled multiple genera. The much broader taxon sampling and better phylogenetic resolution afforded by our study relative to the previous efforts greatly clarify the relationships among families and sub-ordinal groups within each of the major clades. The failure of these mitochondrial genes as well as previous 18S rDNA studies to resolve many of the deeper nodes within the tree (including its root) suggest that octocorals underwent a rapid radiation and that large amounts of sequence data will be required in order to resolve the basal relationships within the clade.
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            Molecular phylogenetic insights into the evolution of Octocorallia: a review.

            The anthozoan sub-class Octocorallia, comprising approximately 3000 species of soft corals, gorgonians, and sea pens, remains one of the most poorly understood groups of the phylum Cnidaria. Efforts to classify the soft corals and gorgonians at the suprafamilial level have long thwarted taxonomists, and the subordinal groups in current use are widely recognized to represent grades of colony forms rather than clades. Molecular phylogenetic analyses of the sub-class do not support either the current morphologically based subordinal or familial-level taxonomy. To date, however, the resolution necessary to propose an alternative, phylogenetic classification of Octocorallia or to elucidate patterns of morphological evolution within the group is lacking. Attempts to understand boundaries between species and interspecific or intraspecific phylogenetic relationships have been hampered by the very slow rate of mitochondrial gene evolution in Octocorallia, and a consequent dearth of molecular markers with variation sufficient to distinguish species (or sometimes genera). A review of the available ITS2 sequence data for octocorals, however, reveals a yet-unexplored phylogenetic signal both at sequence and secondary-structure levels. In addition, incongruence between mitochondrial and nuclear gene trees suggests that hybrid speciation and reticulate evolution may be an important mechanism of diversification in some genera. Emerging next-generation genomic-sequencing technologies offer the best hope for a breakthrough in our understanding of phylogenetic relationships and of evolution of morphological traits in Octocorallia. Genome and transcriptome sequencing may provide enough characters to resolve relationships at the deepest levels of the octocoral tree, while simultaneously offering an efficient means to screen for new genetic markers variable enough to distinguish species and populations. © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved.
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              Molecular evidence for multiple lineages in the gorgonian family Plexauridae (Anthozoa: Octocorallia)

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                URI : urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B988C1E1-7D0A-44E1-9E7D-766D2CEC9079
                Journal
                Zookeys
                Zookeys
                ZooKeys
                ZooKeys
                Pensoft Publishers
                1313-2989
                1313-2970
                2013
                3 April 2013
                : 283
                : 15-42
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology, California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, San Francisco, California, 94118, USA
                Author notes
                Corresponding author: Gary C. Williams ( gwilliams@ 123456calacademy.org )

                Academic editor: B.W. Hoeksema

                Article
                10.3897/zookeys.283.4803
                3677362
                23794840
                2721f6bb-4a14-43fd-8895-e60c55380b2e
                Gary C. Williams

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 4 February 2013
                : 8 March 2013
                Categories
                Article

                Animal science & Zoology
                alcyonium,cryptophyton,gersemia,northeastern pacific,octocorallia,plexaurid gorgonian,soft corals,taxonomy

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