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Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on June 28, 2006
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2006 46(4):558-568; doi:10.1093/icb/icj055
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Progenetic species in polychaetes (Annelida) and problems assessing their phylogenetic affiliation

Torsten H. Struck1
FB 05 Biology/Chemistry, AG Zoology, University of Osnabrück Barbarastrasse 11, 49076 Osnabrück, Germany

Correspondence: 1E-mail: struck{at}biologie.uni-osnabrueck.de

Progenesis is defined as the retention of ancestral juvenile characters by adult stages of descendants due to an acceleration of the sexual maturation and thus is often regarded as a fast evolutionary process. Several small, meiofaunal polychaetes, such as Dinophilidae, some "Dorvilleidae" (for example, Parapodrilus), and Protodrilida, exhibit morphological simplicity in that they lack features typical of larger polychaetes, for example, parapodia and/or head appendages. Due to the general resemblance of adult meiofaunal polychaetes to juveniles of larger forms, progenesis has been invoked to explain evolutionary origins of many smaller taxa with increasing frequency over the past 4 decades. In this review, I summarize the interstitial species of polychaetes for which progenetic origin has been suggested on the basis of morphology. However, critical examination of morphological data that includes larval features reveals that autapomorphic characters uniting supposed progenetic taxa to specific annelid lineages are often missing. Typically larval and juvenile characters, which are argued to support hypotheses of progenetic origin, are often widely dispersed, homoplastic features. Because of this situation, molecular data seem to be the most reliable source for phylogenetic inference. However, other biological data, for example, from life history and morphology, are necessities to substantiate the progenetic evolution of these species.


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Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
T. H. Struck and F. Fisse
Phylogenetic Position of Nemertea Derived from Phylogenomic Data
Mol. Biol. Evol., April 1, 2008; 25(4): 728 - 736.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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