Taxonomy, Anatomy and Diversity of Marine Annelids of the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

The taxonomy of marine Annelids has traditionally been based on characters extracted from the study of external morphology, and only occasionally on certain aspects of internal anatomy. These studies were traditionally carried out by the use of Optical Microscopy techniques, as well as by the examination of histological sections. In the last decades, these techniques have been improved and complemented with the development of Scanning Electron Microscopy in the first case, and very recently of Computerized Microtomography in the second. Furthermore, the development and generalization of molecular genomic sequencing techniques and their application in the taxonomic study have provided a new and revolutionary vision of animal diversity, revealing an unsuspected panorama until few years ago. The current status of polychaete taxonomy is hindered by several issues. This Thesis addresses some of them: forgotten species, cosmopolitan species, species complexes and search for new taxonomic characters. This PhD Thesis aims to be one more step within the actual approach of integrative taxonomy by combining different study techniques, focusing on different groups of marine Annelids of the Northeastern Atlantic Ocean.