First Molecular Phylogeny of Lumbrineridae (Annelida)

Abstract

Lumbrineridae is a family of marine annelids with simple external morphology but complex and diverse jaw apparatuses consisting of paired maxillae and mandibles. Here we present the first phylogeny of lumbrinerids based on combination of nuclear (18S rDNA) and mitochondrial (COI, 16S rDNA) markers utilizing Bayesian inference and Maximum Likelihood approaches. Despite limited taxon sampling, our results support monophyly of the genera Abyssoninoe, Augeneria, Gallardoneris, Lumbrineriopsis, and Ninoe and indicate polyphyly of the genera Lumbrineris (the type genus of the family) and Scoletoma. None of the morphological characters traditionally used in lumbrinerid systematics, such as the presence of connecting plates, four pairs of maxillae, bidentate simple hooded hooks, colorless maxillae IV, and multidentate maxillae IV were found to be exclusive homologies for a well-supported clade and have probably evolved several times independently within Lumbrineridae.