Antillesoma antillarum (Grübe & Oersted, 1858): cosmopolitan species or species complex

• Ano de defesa: 2023
• Autor(a) principal: Letícia Curvello Franco
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; Brasil; ICB - DEPARTAMENTO DE ZOOLOGIA; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Zoologia; UFMG
• Palavras-chave em Português: Annelida; Antillesomatidae; Delimitação de espécies; Distribuição geográfica; Espécies pseudo-crípticas; Zoologia; Anelídeos; Composição de espécies; Distribuição geográfica.
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/1843/64696

Sipuncula are marine annelids that have been widely overlooked in global taxonomic and systematic studies. This dissertation aims to fill this historical gap by documenting the presence of the supposedly cosmopolitan species Antillesoma antillarum (Grübe & Oersted, 1858) in nineteen Brazilian localities, with new records in three states, shedding light on its distribution in Brazil and worldwide. Morphological details for coastal Brazilian species are delineated. Furthermore, through an integrative approach that combines morphological and molecular data, the hypothesis of A. antillarum's cosmopolitanism was investigated and debunked. We identified three putative species within the Antillesomatidae (Kawauchi, Sharma, & Giribet, 2012) family: one lineage corresponding to populations of the Western Atlantic, spanning from Florida, the USA, to Espírito Santo, Brazil; a second lineage corresponding to individuals from Thailand; and a third lineage corresponding to A. mexicanum in the Eastern Pacific. This study marks the inception of future investigations, providing insights for a deeper understanding of biodiversity and taxonomy within this group