JENNER, RA; TELFORD, MJ; Univ. of Cambridge, U.K.; Univ. of Cambridge, U.K.: Molecular tests of the phylogeny of the Arthropoda and the Ecdysozoa

Recent advances in molecular phylogenetics have provided increasingly convincing support for a close relationship between Hexapoda and Crustacea (together Pancrustacea or Tetraconata) within the Arthropoda, a hypothesis for which morphological support is also mounting. In contrast, molecular evidence has so far not allowed a reliable placement of the Myriapoda and Chelicerata within the arthropods. We comprehensively explore previously published sequence data from a variety of nuclear and mitochondrial genes with different phylogenetic methods to test competing hypotheses of arthropod phylogeny. Furthermore, we use a variety of other approaches, including the sequencing of ESTs (expressed sequence tags) from selected ecdysozoans, and the phylogenetic analysis of a large number of nuclear protein coding genes from selected bilaterians, to test alternative hypotheses about the phylogeny of Ecdysozoa.