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Source at https://doi.org/10.5324/fn.v39i0.2873. Thirteen species in the amphipod family Gammaridae have been reported from Norway. This paper gives a survey of the distribution and habitat of all 13 species of the family Gammaridae occurring or expected to occur in Norwegian waters: both marine, brackish and fresh, including Svalbard, in addition to four species found in close neighbouring waters. It also provides a short history of the study of Gammaridae in Norway, as well as an illustrated identification key to all species in the area.

Normal 0 21 false false false NO-BOK X-NONE X-NONE The bone-eating siboglinid polychaete Osedax mucofloris Glover, Kallstrom, Smith & Dahlgren, 2005 is reported from Norwegian waters for the first time. Dense growth was found on bovine bones deposited at 118 meters depth off western Norway. Dwarf males were observed for the first time. The two specimens sequenced were identical to haplotypes previously found at a Swedish whale fall. The possibility of finding additional species of Osedax is discussed.

The order Mysida (2 families, 178 genera, 1132 species) contains species across a broad range of habitats, such as subterranean, fresh, brackish, coastal, and surface to deep-sea habitats. The Stygiomysida (2 families, 2 genera, 16 species), however, are found primarily in subterranean waters, but always in waters with a marine influence. The Mysida and Stygiomysida body is divided into three main regions: cephalon, thorax, and abdomen. They are shrimp-like in appearance, containing morphological features earlier referred to as defining a "caridoid facies". The shrimp-like morphology was to some extent diagnostic for the historic Decapod taxon Schizopoda, containing the Nebalia, Mysida, Lophogastrida, and Euphausiacea. In 1904 the concept of Schizopoda was abandoned, and the Mysidacea (Mysida and Lophogastrida) along with Cumacea, Amphipoda, Isopoda, and Tanaidacea were placed in a new taxon, the Peracarida. Later discoveries of groundwater mysids led to the establishment of Stygiomysida, but placement to either Lophogastrida or Mysida remained unclear. The presence of oostegites and absence of podobranchiae, coupled with non-statocyst bearing uropods have been used to classify the Stygiomysida as a primitive Mysida family, comparable to Petalophthalmidae. On the other hand, equally suggestive characters, but for a Lophogastrida affiliation, was suggested for the archaic foregut characters and again, non-statocyst bearing uropods. With the inclusion of DNA sequence data of ribosomal genes, sister group relationships between Stygiomysida, Lophogastrida, and Mictacea within the Peracarida are observed, which supports a classification of the Stygiomysida as a separate order removed from the Mysida. publishedVersion

A new species of Limnophyes Eaton collected in the Corvo Branco Mountains in Santa Catarina State is described and figured, based on male and female adults, larva and pupa. The species groups with L. griseata (Edwards) and L. bidumus Sæther as the adults have a pronounced humeral pit with lanceolate setae and an additional group of lanceolate setae just posterior to antepronotum. The adults are, however, distinctly smaller, have a lower AR and have more lanceolate setae in the group just posterior to antepronotum than the two other species. The pupa can easily be separated from the pupa of L. bidumus as the anal macroseta is longer than the anal lobe. The larva lives hygropetric on vertical rock surfaces. A key to male adults of Neotropical Limnophyes is given. publishedVersion

Received: 15 July 2014.- Accepted: 1 September 2014.- Published: 25 September 2014, [Background] With more than 100000 living species, mollusks are the second most diverse metazoan phylum. The current taxonomic classification of mollusks recognizes eight classes (Neomeniomorpha, Chaetodermomorpha, Polyplacophora, Monoplacophora, Cephalopoda, Gastropoda, Bivalvia, and Scaphopoda) that exhibit very distinct body plans. In the past, phylogenetic relationships among mollusk classes have been contentious due to the lack of indisputable morphological synapomorphies. Fortunately, recent phylogenetic analyses based on multi-gene data sets are rendering promising results. In this regard, mitochondrial genomes have been widely used to reconstruct deep phylogenies. For mollusks, complete mitochondrial genomes are mostly available for gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods, whereas other less-diverse lineages have few or none reported., [Results] The complete DNA sequence (14662 bp) of the mitochondrial genome of the chaetodermomorph Scutopus ventrolineatus Salvini-Plawen, 1968 was determined. Compared with other mollusks, the relative position of protein-coding genes in the mitochondrial genome of S. ventrolineatus is very similar to those reported for Polyplacophora, Cephalopoda and early-diverging lineages of Bivalvia and Gastropoda (Vetigastropoda and Neritimorpha; but not Patellogastropoda). The reconstructed phylogenetic tree based on combined mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data recovered monophyletic Aplacophora, Aculifera, and Conchifera. Within the latter, Cephalopoda was the sister group of Gastropoda and Bivalvia + Scaphopoda., [Conclusions] Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial sequences showed strong among-lineage rate heterogeneity that produced long-branch attraction biases. Removal of long branches (namely those of bivalves and patellogastropods) ameliorated but not fully resolved the problem. Best results in terms of statistical support were achieved when mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data were concatenated., We acknowledge support of the publication fee by the CSIC Open Access Publication Support Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI). DO was supported by a FPI grant (BES-2008-009562) of the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO). II was supported by a JAE-pre PhD Fellowship (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC, and the European Social Fund, ESF) and by a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) during the last stage of this work. CG is currently a “Ramón y Cajal” postdoctoral fellow supported by the MINECO and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. The work was partly funded by projects of the MINECO to RZ (CGL2007-60954 and CGL2010-18216) and to CG (CGL2011-29916).

The genus Palaeoboreochlus Baranov et Andersen, n. gen. is erected based on P. inornatus Baranov et Andersen, n. sp. described from a male found in Late Eocene Rovno amber. The new genus groups with Boreochlus Edwards in the tribe "Boreochlini". publishedVersion

Four genera of Haminoeidae gastropods inhabiting the tropical West Pacific (Aliculastrum, Atys, Diniatys, and Liloa) were studied based on the combined analyses of live animals, external morphology, anatomy and shells aided by scanning electron microscopy and molecular sequencing. Eleven species are described including two new to Science, namely Atys pittmani sp. nov. and Atys ukulele sp. nov.. The putative synapomorphies of the genera Aliculastrum, Diniatys, and Liloa are discussed. High levels of morpho-anatomical variability were found among representatives of the genus Atys, which hampered the recognition of synapomorphies. publishedVersion

Mollusca is an animal phylum with vast morphological diversity and includes worm-shaped aplacophorans, snails, bivalves, and the complex cephalopods [1]. The interrelationships of these class-level taxa are still contentious [2 and 3], but recent phylogenomic analyses suggest a dichotomy at the base of Mollusca, resulting in a monophyletic Aculifera (comprising the shell-less, sclerite-bearing aplacophorans and the eight-shelled polyplacophorans) and Conchifera (all other, primarily univalved groups) [4 and 5]. The Aculifera concept has recently gained support via description of the fossil Kulindroplax, which shows both aplacophoran- and polyplacophoran-like features and suggests that the aplacophorans originated from a shelled ancestor [ 6], but the overall morphology of the last common aculiferan ancestor remains obscure. Here we show that larvae of the aplacophoran Wirenia argentea have several sets of muscles previously known only from polyplacophoran mollusks. Most of these are lost during metamorphosis, and we interpret them as ontogenetic remnants of an ancestor with a complex, polyplacophoran-like musculature. Moreover, we find that the first seven pairs of dorsoventral muscles develop synchronously in Wirenia, similar to juvenile polyplacophorans [ 7], which supports the conclusions based on the seven-shelled Kulindroplax. Accordingly, we argue that the simple body plan of recent aplacophorans is the result of simplification and does not represent a basal molluscan condition. publishedVersion

Scolytoplatypodini Blandford is a monotypic tribe of ambrosia beetles found in Asia, Madagascar and Africa. Only three species are currently known from Madagascar and four additional species are here described as new to science. Phylogenetic analyses of morphological and molecular data revealed that four of the seven endemic species are deeply separated from all other species by genetic and distinct morphological characters and therefore placed in a new genus Remansus Jordal. The split between this ancient lineage and Scolytoplatypus Schaufuss was estimated to approximate Palaeocene age (63 Ma), extending the minimum age of ambrosia feeding for this tribe to the beginning of the Palaeocene‒Eocene thermal maximum (PETM). In addition to the ancient origin of Remansus in Madagascar during the Palaeocene, a second origin occurred in Scolytoplatypus no more than 13 Ma. A geographical origin of the latter in South-Eastern Africa was unequivocally inferred from the phylogenies.

800x600 Normal 0 21 false false false NO-BOK X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 In 1895 a shed elk antler was found in a mire on a farm near Fluberg, in Sondre Land municipality in south-eastern Norway. The antler was first radiocarbon dated in 2008 and yielded the age 9,100 ± 50 BP (8,340 – 8,250 BC), which is the oldest dated elk remain from Norway. Elk ( Alces alces L., 1758) are a pioneer colonising species; they were already established south of the ice front in Denmark and southern Sweden in the Late Glacial period. This antler shows that the species had arrived in south-eastern Norway in the late Preboreal period. This could tie in with the earliest arrival of elk once the colonizing routes from southern Sweden were established 9,300-9,200 BP. The antler is clearly of the palmate morph, and strongly resembles elk antlers found in Denmark and southern Sweden from the Late Glacial and Early Holocene periods. This find also reveals that the vegetation at the end of the Preboreal period suited large herbivores such as elk.

Until recent years, only a few scalibregmatid species have been known from the Nordic Seas, largely from shelf and coastal waters. Access to a large collection from deep areas has made it possible to provide more knowledge on the diversity of this group in the area. Pseudoscalibregma parvum (Hansen, 1879) is here redescribed. The species has a wide geographic distribution in the Nordic Seas, the Barents Sea, and the Kara Sea. Type specimens of Eumenia longisetosa Théel, 1879 were found to be similar to specimens of P. parvum, confirming the synonymy of the species. A new species, Scalibregma hanseni n. sp., is described from specimens found on the continental slope. It is particularly characterised by having three pairs of rather simple branchiae. Both P. parvum and S. hanseni have small spines in the most anterior chaetiger(s), resembling spines reported from a few other Pseudoscalibregma and Scalibregma species and supporting the need to emend the genus diagnosis of Pseudoscalibregma. Scalibregma abyssorum Hansen, 1879 was reassessed and considered to be a nomen dubium. Scalibregma inflatum, which has a wide distribution along the Norwegian coast and continental shelf, is found to be restricted to depths above about 900 m. Depths from 600– 800 m on the continental slope represent a transition zone with fluctuations between temperate North Atlantic water (about 7°C) and cold Norwegian Sea water (below 0°C). The three species coexist in this zone, whereas P. parvum and S. hanseni n. sp. extend down to 1700 and 1200 m, respectively, on the slope at temperatures below 0°C.