The evolutionary history of Branchiopoda (Crustacea) traditionally has attracted considerable interest due to the diversity of the group. Recently molecular methods have been applied to the study of branchiopod systematics with some success, but central questions, such as the phylogenetic position of Laevicaudata and Notostraca, and the intrinsic cladoceran phylogeny, remain unanswered. We exam...

'Living fossils', a phrase first coined by Darwin, are defined as species with limited recent diversification and high morphological stasis over long periods of evolutionary time. Morphological stasis, however, can potentially lead to diversification rates being underestimated. Notostraca, or tadpole shrimps, is an ancient, globally distributed order of branchiopod crustaceans regarded as 'livi...

Tadpole shrimp (Crustacea, Notostraca) are iconic inhabitants of temporary aquatic habitats worldwide. Often cited as prime examples of evolutionary stasis, surviving representatives closely resemble fossils older than 200 mya, suggestive of an ancient origin. Despite significant interest in the group as 'living fossils' the taxonomy of surviving taxa is still under debate and both the phylogen...

We calculate the two loop dilaton tadpole induced by Fayet-Iliopoulos Dterms in heterotic string theories compactified on arbitrary supersymmetry preserving backgrounds. The result turns out to be a total derivative in the moduli and hence receives contribution solely from the boundary of the moduli space. This contribution is shown to be proportional to the square of the coefficient of the one...

We used a combined analysis of one nuclear (28S rDNA) and three mitochondrial markers (COI, 12S rDNA, 16S rDNA) to infer the molecular phylogeny of the Notostraca, represented by samples from the six continents that are inhabited by this group of branchiopod crustaceans. Our results confirm the monophyly of both extant notostracan genera Triops and Lepidurus with good support in model based and...

Branchiopod crustaceans are represented by fairy, tadpole, and clam shrimps (Anostraca, Notostraca, Laevicaudata, Spinicaudata), which typically inhabit temporary freshwater bodies, and water fleas (Cladoceromorpha), which live in all kinds of freshwater and occasionally marine environments [1, 2]. The earliest branchiopods occur in the Cambrian, where they are represented by complete body foss...