Biodiversidade de Ophiocoma (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) do Atlântico Sul: estudos morfológicos e moleculares

Author(s)

Helena Serrano

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia
• Defense date: 2021-11-29

Examining board members

Michela Borges; Fosca Pedini Pereira Leite; Jéssica Prata de Oliveira

• Advisor: Michela Borges

Abstract

Ophiuroids (brittle stars) are very peculiar marine invertebrates, with diversified habits, both feeding and reproductive. The evolutionary history of the Ophiuroidea is still poorly understood, due to the lack of apomorphies of the group, which make it difficult to define the species. Therefore, based on integrative taxonomy (IT), which uses different molecular, morphological, ecological and phylogeographic characters, to obtain the most robust results, it is possible to delimit these species more easily. In this dissertation we use IT to test whether the two morphotypes of Ophiocoma sampled on the coast of Brazil belong or not to the same species. The tools used in this investigation were: i) external morphology; ii) morphology of microstructural characters; iii) morphometry of diagnostic structures; iv) molecular data (16S mitochondrial gene fragments). Our results are presented in the form of a scientific article, describing the new species Ophiocoma trindadensis sp. nov, and redescription of Ophiocoma echinata (Lamarck, 1816), until then a single species of the genus described for Brazil. We bring together modern morphological and molecular tools, important for the delimitation of species, thus contributing to future taxonomic work of the group (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 19/01620-9 - Biodiversity of Ophiodermatina (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) along South Atlantic: morphological and molecular studies
• Grantee: Helena Serrano
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master