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Just Accepted
This article has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication. It is in production and has not been edited, so may differ from the final published form.
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Cryptic species of Nereididae (Annelida: Polychaeta) on Australian coral reefs
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Christopher
Glasby,
Vivian
Wei,
Karen
Gibb
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Abstract
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We investigate the presence of cryptic species among three highly variably nereidid polychaetes commonly found in Australian coral reefs â Nereis denhamensis, Perinereis suluana and Pseudonereis anomala â based on morphological and molecular data (mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, COI, and nuclear histone H3). DNA extracted and sequenced from 70 specimens from northern Australia and the Philippines indicated the existence of eight species: three matched the types of existing species; four are newly described (Nereis heronensis sp. nov., N. lizardensis sp. nov., Perinereis pictilis sp. nov. and Pseudonereis anomalopsis sp. nov.) from NE Australia, and one species is described but not named. Nereis denhamensis, N. heronensis sp. nov. and N. lizardensis sp. nov. are distinguished from each other by proboscidial paragnath number and morphology of the metamorphosed female. Perinereis suluana can only be separated from P. pictilis sp. nov. by colour pattern, and Pseudonereis anomala., P. anomalopsis sp. nov. and P. sp. differ in colour pattern and the number and arrangement of paragnaths. Nereis (Lycoris) tydemani from Maluku, Indonesia, is synonymised with P. anomala. Divergence times estimated using COI indicated that speciation in all three groups occurred in the Mid-Miocene (20â17 ±7 mya), which corresponds to a period of restricted east-west dispersal as Australia collided with the Indo-Malay archipelago, followed by range expansion opportunities in NE Australia as a result of flourishing coral reefs responding to warming seas and rising sea levels.
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| IS12031 Accepted 07 December 2012 |
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| © CSIRO 2012 |
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