The Integrative Taxonomic Approach Applied to Porifera: A Case Study of the Homoscleromorpha

Abstract

The two main scientific tasks of taxonomy are species' delineation and classification. These two tasks are often treated differently, with classification accomplished by newly-developed phylogenetic methods, often based on molecular sequences, while delimitation of species is conducted by what is often considered to be an "old-fashioned" typological approach based on morphological description. A new "integrative taxonomy" has been proposed which maintains that species delimitation should be a multidisciplinary undertaking combining several independent datasets. Here we argue that the same principle is relevant to the classification of species. In the past 20 years, we assembled various datasets based on the external morphology, anatomy, cytology, spicule shapes, geography, reproduction, genetic sequences, and metabolomics of homoscleromorph sponges. We show how we used these datasets to describe new species of homoscleromorph sponges and to elucidate their phylogenetic relationships and their phylogenetic position within the phylum Porifera.

Assembling Ecological Pieces to Reconstruct the Conservation Puzzle of the Aegean Sea

“…Many sponges (and other sessile invertebrates) often lack conspicuous external morphological characteristics that would allow easy and reliable identification in situ (Van Soest et al, 2012). Thus, additional criteria, such as genetic divergence, should also be considered (Boury-Esnault et al, 2013), and new assessments are required to elucidate the taxonomic status and distribution range of several species with unresolved or controversial taxonomy (see Cook and Bergquist, 2002;Heim et al, 2007).…”

Temporal and small‐scale spatial variations in abundance and biomass of seagrass‐dwelling sponges in a tropical estuarine system

“…; Boury‐Esnault et al . ). Thus, we have chosen to combine morphology and COI mtDNA sequences looking for reliable identification and as an integrative approach.…”

Integrative taxonomic description of Plakina kanaky, a new polychromatic sponge species from New Caledonia (Porifera: Homoscleromorpha)

“…; Boury‐Esnault et al . ). Formerly included in Demospongiae, Homoscleromorpha are accepted today as the fourth Porifera class (Gazave et al .…”

“…The systematics of Homoscleromorpha is rather complex because several representatives lack a skeleton, which is the fundamental character used in sponge systematics. Consequently, Homoscleromorpha was one of the first sponge clades studied with integrative taxonomy, an approach that has encouraged the exploration of the species diversity within this clade and allowed the description of 42% of the overall Homoscleromorpha diversity during the last 20 years Boury-Esnault et al 2013). Formerly included in Demospongiae, Homoscleromorpha are accepted today as the fourth Porifera class (Gazave et al 2012).…”