Marine invertebrate projects
This project has been created by combining two projects already in progress; the pontoniine shrimps and the gall crabs.
The subfamily Pontoniinae is one of the most radiated groups of shrimps in the world. More than 550 species in 108 genera have been recognised so far. These shrimps mainly inhabit shallow marine waters in tropical and subtropical regions, reaching highest diversity in reef areas. Almost all species are known to live in association with other marine organisms like sponges, coelenterates, echinoderms, bivalves and ascidians. Specimens associated with different hosts (but regarded conspecific on the basis of their morphology) might belong to separate cryptic species that could be identified on the basis of their barcodes.
In the most recent taxonomic revision of gall crabs, several new species have been described (Kropp 1990). No moleculair phylogenetic research on this group has been published (yet). In this project, the collections of the Florida Museum of Natural History (350 specimens) and NCB Naturalis (500 specimens) are combined. Together these collections contain almost all described species for the Indo-Pacific region. With this project, a start can be made for the phylogenetic reconstruction of this relatively unknown group of crabs. Cryptic species are expected.
A specimen of pontoniine shrimp (photo: Charles Fransen)
The Ovulidae have always been considered a rich family. In 1994, Rosenberg already argued that the variable characteristics in many Ovulidae and the interest of shell traders caused an overestimation of the number of species, and many species that have been described should be considered one and the same species. With the help of moleculair techniques, we can determine where to draw boundaries between species and between variations within a species. This project can subsequently be used as a basis for phylogenetic research.
TBD
Marine lakes are small bodies of seawater fully enclosed by land. They contain a unique fauna of poriferans, which has not been researched to larger extend before. Within this project, the communities of different lakes in Raja Ampat, West Papua and Indonesia are compared to eachother and to the outlying oceans to get an idea of which species are endemic to the lakes. Maybe these lakes are some sort of inside-out islands?
A specimen of Lissodendoryx fibrosa
Friday, December 16, 2011