DALY, M: What’s in a name? Taxonomy, usage and circumscription in the genus Anthopleura (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Actiniaria) Nomenclature evolves, as the circumscription, composition, and application of names adapt to the knowledge and needs of scientists. Taxonomic boundaries also evolve, as additional information about anatomy, life history and biology are incorporated into taxonomic circumscriptions. Discrepancies between […]

JEFFERY, J.E.*; BININDA-EMONDS, O.R.P.; COATES, M.I.; RICHARDSON, M.K.: Using Heterochrony to Reconstruct Phylogeny Numerous studies have shown that change in the sequence of development is a widespread phenomenon in vertebrate evolution. However, these heterochronies are usually examined on pre-existing phylogenies, rather than used as data for phylogenetic reconstruction. Before such data can be used in […]

COLE, A.G.; HALL, B.K.: Non-vertebrate cartilage: A phylogenetic analysis Cartilage is often thought of as solely a vertebrate tissue, although cartilage-like tissue is found in a number of species, from a diversity of groups [eg. molluscs, sabellid polychaetes, and arthropods]. The relationship between these tissues and vertebrate cartilage is not clear, although I will discuss […]

THACKER, R.W.*; STARNES, S.: Host Specificity of Symbiotic Cyanobacteria in Marine Sponges Although marine sponges can host a variety of cyanobacterial and bacterial symbionts, it is often not known whether these symbionts are generalists that occur in a variety of host species or specialists that occur only in certain species or populations of sponges. We […]

BLOMBERG, S.P.; IVES, A.R.; GARLAND, T.: Detecting Phylogenetic Signal in Comparative Data Most species resemble their nearest relatives, yet a general comparative method that measures such phylogenetic “signal” is not yet available. We present new procedures for measuring phylogenetic signal in continuous-valued characters, which use information on both topology and branch lengths. The procedures can […]

ALFARO, M. E.; ZOLLER, S.; LUTZONI, F.: Comparative performance of the bootstrap and Bayesian MCMC sampling in assessing phylogenetic confidence: a simulation study The use of Monte Carlo-based Bayesian methods to estimate confidence in phylogenetic results is becoming increasingly common. Although the results of such analyses are often thought to be roughly equivalent to traditional […]

CUNDALL, David; FORD, Neil; Lehigh University; University of Texas, Tyler: Xenopeltis unicolor: Evolution of Unilateral Jaw Motion and Macrostomy in Snakes. Xenopeltis, a snake with unusual skull and cephalic muscle forms, is currently hypothesized to be a basal macrostomatan. Clade membership of Xenopeltis is reassessed on the basis of prey capture and transport mechanics, manipulations […]

FERRY-GRAHAM, LA; WAINWRIGHT, PC; NEAR, TJ; UC Davis; UC Davis; UC Davis: Pharyngeal Jaw Form, Function, and Evolution in the Labroidei The teleost clade Labroidei (labrids, cichlids, pomacentrids + embiotocids) is characterized as having functional and morphological novelties associated with the pharyngeal jaw apparatus (PJA); most notably extension and fusion of muscles to form a […]

PRATT, M.C.; Duke University, Durham, NC: It�s where you put your mouth that matters: how the location of feeding zooids within a colony affects ingestion rate in bryozoans. While there is a wide diversity of colonial animals, very similar colony growth forms seem to have evolved convergently across taxa. Is there a functional reason why […]

WILGA, Cheryl/D.; Univ. of Rhode Island: Evolution of the Jaw Suspension in Lamniform Sharks Morphological characters of the jaw suspension and jaw muscles of lamniform sharks were mapped onto a cladogram to shed light on how changes in jaw suspension and protrusion may have evolved. Several evolutionary changes in the jaw suspension and protrusion mechanism […]