Meeting Abstract

121.2  Monday, Jan. 7  Evolution of parental care in Endomyarian sea anemones LARSON, P.G.*; DALY, M.; The Ohio State University; The Ohio State University larson.309@osu.edu

In benthic, primarily sessile animals like sea anemones (Cnidaria: Actiniaria), the retention of developing offspring (brooding) can significantly impact the potential for dispersal and speciation when compared with a strategy of producing free-swimming larvae. Brooding internally is a pan-latitudinal phenomenon among anemones, but external brooding is restricted to cold-temperate and polar regions. The genus Epiactis contains twelve species that brood, nine of which do so externally and include representatives from the arctic and Antarctic. The life history and reproductive details of brooding species in Epiactis are highly variable: for example, the arctic E. marsupialis is dioecious and broods offspring within pits in the surface of the column while in Antarctica, E. georgiana is hermaphroditic with offspring exposed, attaching directly to the surface of their parent via their pedal disk. E. fernaldi and E. thompsoni are internally brooding species that can be found in the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively. The close relationships implied by the current classification of these diverse species are tested by mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences. The results inform our understanding of the evolution of brooding strategies within Endomyarian sea anemones.