Meeting Abstract
The systematics and evolution of the ~30 described species of clownfishes have been heavily studied, the clownfish-hosting sea anemones are poorly represented in phylogenetic studies of sea anemones. Currently there are 10 morphologically described clownfish-hosting sea anemones within five genera. These include Entacmaea, Heteractis, Stichodactyla, Cryptodendrum, and Macrodactyla. Although the current anemone taxonomy suggests multiple independent evolutionary origins of symbiosis with clownfishes, no anemone phylogenetic dataset has included representatives of more than 5 taxa in a single analysis. Here we use broad biogeographic sampling and newly generated mtDNA and nuDNA datasets to investigate the phylogenetic placement of 9/10 clownfish hosts within Actinioidea. We test the hypothesis derived from the current taxonomy that symbiosis with fishes evolved independently across Actinioidea, and we also test the monophyly of each anemone genera. Our phylogenetic reconstruction confirms that symbiosis with fishes evolved independently across the Actinioidea. Our data suggest at least four independent evolutionary origins of symbiosis with clownfishes. We recover the genus Heteractis as paraphyletic while confirming the monophyly of Stichodactyla. While our dataset represents the most extensive investigation into the clownfish hosting sea anemones, many family-level relationships and below are poorly supported. Genomic markers with greater resolution will provide greater phylogenetic insight into anemones within the Actinioidea and the lineages symbiotic with clownfishes.
