Hard and Soft Anatomy in Two Genera of Dondersiidae (Mollusca, Aplacophora, Solenogastres)
Reference: Biol. Bull. 222: 233–269. (June 2012) © 2012 Marine Biological Laboratory Hard and Soft Anatomy in Two Genera of Dondersiidae (Mollusca, Aplacophora, Solenogastres) AME´ LIE H. SCHELTEMA1,*, CHRISTOFFER SCHANDER2†, AND KEVIN M. KOCOT3 1Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Biology Dept., Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543; 2University Museum of Bergen, P.O. Box 7800, Bergen N-5020, Norway; Uni Environment, Uni Research AS, Bergen N-5020, Norway; and 3Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, 101 Rouse Life Sciences, Auburn, Alabama 36849 Abstract. Phylogenetic relationships and identifications Introduction in the aplacophoran taxon Solenogastres (Neomeniomor- pha) are in flux largely because descriptions of hard parts–– The cylindrical, vermiform, sclerite-covered Aplaco- sclerites, radulae, copulatory spicules––and body shape phora has been a perplexing taxon of molluscs ever since have often not been adequately illustrated or utilized. With the first two species, representatives of the only two clades, easily recognizable and accessible hard parts, descriptions were discovered: Chaetoderma nitidulum Love´n, 1844, ϭ of Solenogastres are of greater use, not just to solenogaster Caudofoveata ( Chaetodermomorpha Pelseneer) and Neo- ϭ taxonomists, but also to ecologists, paleontologists, and menia carinata Tullberg, 1875, Solenogastres ( Neomen- evolutionary biologists. Phylogenetic studies of Aplaco- iomorpha Pelseneer). The puzzle was first of all whether N. carinata phora, Mollusca, and the Lophotrochozoa as a whole, they were molluscs at all, because lacks a radula, and the radula of C. nitidulum is a strange, 2-den- whether morphological or molecular, would be enhanced. ticled affair attached to a long cuticular cone. Indeed, the As an example, morphologic characters, both isolated hard great malacologist Johannes Thiele, with far less informa- parts and internal anatomy, are provided for two genera in tion than is now available, and who published over 20 the Dondersiidae.
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