No abstract

The Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary Islands and Cabo Verde are commonly united under the term “Macaronesia”. This study investigates the coherency and validity of Macaronesia as a biogeographic unit using six marine groups with very different dispersal abilities: coastal fishes, echinoderms, gastropod molluscs, brachyuran decapod crustaceans, polychaete annelids, and macroalgae. We found no support for the current concept of Macaronesia as a coherent marine biogeographic unit. All marine groups studied suggest the exclusion of Cabo Verde from the remaining Macaronesian archipelagos and thus, Cabo Verde should be given the status of a biogeographic subprovince within the West African Transition province. We propose to redefine the Lusitanian biogeographical province, in which we include four ecoregions: the South European Atlantic Shelf, the Saharan Upwelling, the Azores, and a new ecoregion herein named Webbnesia, which comprises the archipelagos of Madeira, Selvagens and the Canary Islands.

2011). The use of the DNA barcode gene 16S mRNA for the clarification of taxonomic problems within the family Sertulariidae (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa). -Zoologica Scripta, 40, 520-537. The Sertulariidae are the most speciose family of the Hydrozoa, and their systematics are problematic. Here, 77 new 16S mtDNA sequence 'barcodes' of Atlantic and Mediterranean sertulariids were subject to phylogenetic analyses along with another 29 already deposited in Genbank. Amongst the 12 nominal genera and around 40 putative species analysed, several taxonomic inconsistencies and corroborations were highlighted by the genetic data. Patterns of morphological characters between the specimens analysed genetically were extremely congruent with molecular estimates. The genera Sertularia, Dynamena and Symplectoscyphus were found to be polyphyletic, and the genus Sertularella paraphyletic. The validity of Sertularella robusta at a species level was confirmed, along with the exclusion of Sertularelloides cylindritheca from the genus Sertularella. Potential cryptic species were detected within Sertularella fusiformis, Sertularella mediterranea, Sertularella ellisii, Sertularia distans, Dynamena disticha, Thuiaria articulata and Diphasia margareta. Conversely, probable cases of synonomy were revealed for the species pairs: Sertularia cupressina and Sertularia argentea, Amphisbetia minima and Amphisbetia operculata, and Thuiaria thuja and T. articulata. 16S haplotype data also revealed probable phylogeographic structure across localities of the NE Atlantic and Mediterranean. As an alternative 'DNA barcode', the 16S gene has the great advantage of being easily amplified and sequenced across hydrozoan taxa. Furthermore, the marked increase in deposited 16S sequences in public databases facilitates the identification of hydrozoan samples to the level of family, genus, and especially species or even populations, in a manner that is coherent with phenotypic and geographic ⁄ environmental differences.