[Coral-List] BMC Evol Biol article published: Merging scleractinian genera: the overwhelming genetic similarity between solitary Desmophyllum and colonial Lophelia

[Anna Maria Addamo]

Dear Coral-listers,


I would like to draw your attention to a new paper entitled "Merging scleractinian genera: the overwhelming genetic similarity between solitary Desmophyllum and colonial Lophelia".

https://bmcevolbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-016-0654-8


Aiming to enhance current knowledge regarding the Systematics of Scleractinia, this paper represents a comparative study of morphological structure of skeleton and genetic divergence between two azooxanthellate taxa: Desmophyllum dianthus andLophelia pertusa. This research has clearly yielded unexpected results in regard to morphology and phylogeny of the solitaryDesmophyllum and the dendroid Lophelia, demonstrating that coloniality may not be a robust taxonomic character in scleractinian corals.


Kind regards,
Anna

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Anna M. Addamo,
Marine Biologist, MSc, PhD

Visiting Scientist
European Commission
Directorate-General Joint Research Centre
Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES)
Unit H.01 Water Resources - TP270
Via E.Fermi, 2749
I-21027 Ispra (VA), Italy
Email: <http://am.addamo@gmail.com/> am.addamo at gmail.com<mailto:am.addamo at gmail.com>
<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna_Addamo/info>https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna_Addamo/info