RT Journal Article
T1 Adding complexity to the complex: New insights into the phylogeny, diversification and origin of parthenogenesis in the Aporrectodea caliginosa species complex (Oligochaeta, Lumbricidae)
A1 Fernández, Rosa
A1 Almodóvar Pérez, Ana María
A1 Novo Rodríguez, Marta
A1 Simancas, Bárbara
A1 Díaz Cosín, Darío
AB The importance of the Aporrectodea caliginosa species complex lies in the great abundance and wide distribution of the species which exist within it. For more than a century, chaos has surrounded this complex; morphological criteria has failed to solve the taxonomic status of these species. This present body of work aims to study the phylogeny of this complex by increasing the number of samples used in previous molecular works and by including morphologically-similar species that were never studied using molecular tools (A. giardi, Nicodrilus monticola, N. carochensis and N. tetramammalis). Two basal clades were obtained: one formed by A. caliginosa and A. tuberculata and the other by the rest of the species. This second clade was divided into two more: one with Eurosiberian and another with Mediterranean forms. A. caliginosa and A. longa were divided into two paraphyletic groups. Both A. giardi and A. nocturna showed characteristics consistent with monophyletic groups. Each of the two recovered lineages of A. trapezoides were phylogenetically related to different sexual species. While lineage I of A. trapezoides was monophyletic, lineage II resulted to be paraphyletic, as well as the three Nicodrilus ‘species’. The diversification of the complex occurred during the Late Miocene–Early Pliocene (6.92–11.09 Mya). The parthenogenetic forms within the Mediterranean clade would have diversified before the ones in the Eurosiberian clade (3.13–4.64 Mya and 1.05–3.48 Mya, respectively), thus implying the existence not only of at least two different moments in which parthenogenesis arose within this complex of species, but also of two different and independent evolutionary lines. Neither the 4× rule nor the GMYC method for species delimitation were successful for distinguishing taxonomically-distinct species.
PB Elsevier
SN 1055-7903
YR 2012
FD 2012-08
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/113604
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/113604
LA eng
NO Fernández R, Almodóvar A, Novo M, Simancas B, Díaz Cosín DJ. Adding complexity to the complex: New insights into the phylogeny, diversification and origin of parthenogenesis in the Aporrectodea caliginosa species complex (Oligochaeta, Lumbricidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 2012;64:368–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2012.04.011.
NO Acknowledgments:R. Fernández was supported by a research grant from Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) and M. Novo by a grant from Fundacion Caja Madrid. This study was funded by the Spanish Government (Project CGL2010/16032BOS).
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid
NO Fundación Caja Madrid
DS Docta Complutense
RD 28 abr 2025