Phylogenetic relationships of termitophilic fungi were estimated with Bayesian as well as other phylogenetic methods from partial sequences of the nuclear encoded large subunit ribosomal DNA (nLSU-rDNA) and the mitochondrial encoded small subunit ribosomal DNA (mtSSU-rDNA). Sequences were obtained from basidiomes covering the morphological, taxonomical, and geographical span of termitophilic mu...

Phylogenetic studies on insect social parasites have found very close host-parasite relationships, and these have often been interpreted as providing evidence for sympatric speciation. However, such phylogenetic inferences are problematic because events occurring after the origin of parasitism, such as extinction, host switching and subsequent speciation, or an incomplete sampling of taxa, coul...

The genus Hymenocardia has been placed either in Euphorbiaceae subfamily Phyllanthoideae or in its own family and then associated with the Urticales, particularly the Ulmaceae. However, the pollen exine wall of Hymenocardia lacks the microchanneled tectum, granular interstitium, and thin foot-layer of the Urticales. Hymenocardia instead has many palynological features found in the Phyllanthoide...

After almost 70 years of stability following publication of Andersen’s (1912) monograph on the group, the systematics of megachiropteran bats (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) was thrown into flux with the advent of molecular phylogenetics in the 1980s—a state where it has remained ever since. One particularly problematic group has been the Austromalayan Harpyionycterinae, currently thought to include...

SYNOPSIS. The article summarizes current knowledge mainly about the (functional) morphology and ultrastructure, but also about the biology, development, and evolution of the Kinorhyncha. The Kinorhyncha are microscopic, bilaterally symmetrical, exclusively free-living, benthic, marine animals and ecologically part of the meiofauna. They occur throughout the world from the intertidal to the deep...

We recently documented the existence of two highly distinct mitochondrial DNA (rntDNA) phylogenetic groups of Coregonus sg. in Beringia in the absence of geographic separation. Po test whether this resulted from secondary intergradation of two groups that evolved in allopatry in Eurasia and Beringia, rntDNA restriction-fragment-length pslyrnorphisms of 21 0 whitefish representing 22 populations...

The interest in reconstructing phylogenetic relationships from data on structural similarity of metabolic pathways is growing. The similarity notions and the techniques involved in this reconstruction are assessed by building phylogenetic relationships for model sets of organisms from the similarity measures of the same metabolic pathway for all of them, and then the phylogenetic trees obtained...

Recent research has cast doubt on the reliability of bones and teeth for reconstructing phylogenetic relationships among higher primate species and genera. Herein, we investigate whether this problem is confined to hard tissues by examining the utility of higher primate soft-tissue characters for reconstructing phylogenetic relationships at low taxonomic levels. We use cladistic methods to anal...

Group II introns are widely believed to have been ancestors of spliceosomal introns, yet little is known about their own evolutionary history. In order to address the evolution of mobile group II introns, we have compiled 71 open reading frames (ORFs) related to group II intron reverse transcriptases and subjected their derived amino acid sequences to phylogenetic analysis. The phylogenetic tre...

The polyphasic approach is the most progressive system that has been suggested for distinguishing and phylogenetically classifying Cyanoprokaryota (Cyanobacteria/Cyanophyta). Several oscillatorialean genera (Lyngbya, Phormidium, Plectonema, and Leptolyngbya) have problematic phylogenetic position and taxonomic state because of their heterogeneity and polyphyletic nature. To accurately resolve t...