Morphological variability and its phylogenetic signal in marine colonial organisms: a case study with the family Campanulariidae (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa)

• Grant number: 13/25874-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): April 10, 2014
• Effective date (End): April 09, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Morphology of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Carlos Marques
• Grantee: Amanda Ferreira e Cunha
• Supervisor: Allen G. Collins
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 11/22260-9 - Morphological variation and its phylogenetic signal in marine colonial organisms: a study with the family Campanulariidae (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa), BP.DR

Abstract

Many taxonomic studies using molecular and morphological data are reassessing species boundaries of groups with wide morphological variation. The overlapping of putative specific diagnostic characters leads to taxonomic confusion, and the relevance of morphological characters used to delimitate species is frequently misinterpreted. The family Campanulariidae is known for its wide morphological variation and complicated taxonomic history. In my PhD project, patterns of morphological variation of campanulariid species are contrasted with its phylogenetic relationships in order to understand how plastic are characters traditionally used in the taxonomy of the family. The proposed internship abroad is very important to achieve my goals, giving me access to a vast collection of samples and sharing benefits of a very productive academic atmosphere. I intend to study several species of the family Campanulariidae deposited in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (NMNH), including unique type materials and voucher specimens of DNA sequences deposited in GenBank. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CUNHA, AMANDA F.; COLLINS, ALLEN G.; MARQUES, ANTONIO C.. When morphometry meets taxonomy: morphological variation and species boundaries in Proboscoida (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa). ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, v. 190, n. 2, p. 417-447, OCT 2020. (17/00641-7, 11/22260-9, 13/50484-4, 11/50242-5, 18/24781-5, 13/25874-3, 04/09961-4)

CUNHA, AMANDA F.; MARONNA, MAXIMILIANO M.; MARQUES, ANTONIO C.. Variability on microevolutionary and macroevolutionary scales: a review on patterns of morphological variation in Cnidaria Medusozoa. ORGANISMS DIVERSITY & EVOLUTION, v. 16, n. 3, p. 431-442, SEP 2016. (11/22260-9, 13/50484-4, 11/50242-5, 13/25874-3)

CUNHA, AMANDA F.; COLLINS, ALLEN G.; MARQUES, ANTONIO C.. Phylogenetic relationships of Proboscoida Broch, 1910 (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa): Are traditional morphological diagnostic characters relevant for the delimitation of lineages at the species, genus, and family levels?. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, v. 106, p. 118-135, JAN 2017. (11/22260-9, 13/50484-4, 11/50242-5, 13/25874-3, 04/09961-4)