Identification of coronate scyphozoans (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa: Coronatae) From the Brazilian coast

• Grant number: 14/09602-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2014
• End date: July 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Taxonomy of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: André Carrara Morandini
• Grantee: Clarissa Garbi Molinari
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The coronates, members of the order Coronatae, are considered the most basal group of Scyphozoa, containing almost 60 species. To unravel the systematics of the order is imperative the observation of the life cycle of each species, considering both polyp and medusa stages. However, recent studies focusing only at the polyp stage were able to promote advances in identification using only morphological characters of the periderm tube. The knowledge of the real number of species along the Brazilian coast and their distribution limits advanced approaches to interpret the biogeography of the group. In this way, this project aims to identify and describe polyp species of Coronatae present in samples to be analyzed taking into account the bathymetric and longitudinal distributions. The animals will be studied by measurements of the periderm tube under light microscopy and the arrangement and morphology of the internal periderm cusps under scanning electronic microscopy. (AU)