Variability on microevolutionary and macroevolutionary scales: a review on patterns of morphological variation in Cnidar
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REVIEW
Variability on microevolutionary and macroevolutionary scales: a review on patterns of morphological variation in Cnidaria Medusozoa Amanda F. Cunha 1 & Maximiliano M. Maronna 1 & Antonio C. Marques 1,2
Received: 10 November 2015 / Accepted: 16 March 2016 # Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematik 2016
Abstract Members of Cnidaria Medusozoa are known for their wide morphological variation, which is expressed on many different levels, especially in different phases of the life cycle. Difficulties in interpreting morphological variations have posed many taxonomic problems, since intraspecific morphological variations are often misinterpreted as interspecific variations and vice-versa, hampering species delimitation. This study reviews the patterns of morphological variation in the Medusozoa, to evaluate how different interpretations of the levels of variation may influence the understanding of the patterns of diversification in the group. Additionally, we provide an estimate of the cryptic diversity in the Hydrozoa, based on COI sequences deposited in GenBank. Morphological variations frequently overlap between microevolutionary and macroevolutionary scales, contributing to misinterpretations of the different levels of variation. In addition, most of the cryptic diversity described so far for the Medusozoa is a result of previously overlooked morphological differences, and there is still great potential for discovering cryptic lineages in the Hydrozoa. We provide evidence that the number of species in the Medusozoa is misestimated and Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13127-016-0276-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Amanda F. Cunha [email protected]
1
Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, Travessa 14, 101, 05508-090 São Paulo, Brazil
2
Centro de Biologia Marinha, Universidade de São Paulo, Rodovia Dr. Manoel Hipólito do Rêgo, Praia do Cabelo Gordo, 11600-000 São Sebastião, São Paulo, Brazil
emphasize the necessity of examining different levels of morphological variations when studying species boundaries, in order to avoid generalizations and misinterpretations of morphological characters. Keywords Cryptic species . Morphological characters . Ontogeny . Plasticity . Polymorphism . Species boundaries
Introduction Following the fundamental work of Darwin (1859), understanding the expression of variation in nature has become essential for the study of evolution, since variation is the basis for evolutionary change. The interpretation of variation, however, has changed in recent years to incorporate phenotypic (developmental) plasticity, in addition to genetic diversity, as important drivers of evolutionary change (West-Eberhard 1989, 2003, 2005; Price et al. 2003; Schlichting 2004; Pigliucci 2007; Pfennig et al. 2010). A major concept is that selection acts on phenotypes and, consequently, phenotypic variation is selectable variation, whether or not it is in
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