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Related: About this forumDNA Study: Giant-Tentacled Creature Is New Kind of Animal
Not often that a totally new order is discovered.
From the American Museum of Natural History, Sea Anemone Tree of Life Reveals Giant Species as Impostor:
This unidentified specimen belonging within Relicanthidae is a sea creature
that was previously thought to be a giant sea anemone (order Actiniaria).
New research places this animal in a new ordera classification equal to
Carnivora in mammals or Crocodilia in reptiles. © NERC CHESSO project
A deep-water creature once thought to be one of the worlds largest sea anemones, with tentacles reaching more than 6.5 feet long, actually belongs to a new order of animals. The finding is part of a new DNA-based study led by the American Museum of Natural History that presents the first tree of life for sea anemones, a group that includes more than 1,200 species. The report, which was published this week in the journal PLOS ONE, reshapes scientists understanding of the relationships among these poorly understood animals.
The discovery of this new order of Cnidariaa phylum that includes jellyfish, corals, sea anemones, and their relativesis the equivalent to finding the first member of a group like primates or rodents, said Estefanía Rodríguez, an assistant curator in the Museums Division of Invertebrate Zoology and the lead author of the new publication. The difference is that most people are far more familiar with animals like chimpanzees and rats than they are with life on the ocean floor. But this amazing finding tells us that we have so much more to learn and discover in the ocean.
Rodríguez, along with an international team of researchers, conducted a four-year study to organize sea anemones in a natural, or phylogenetic, way, based on their evolutionary relationships. Sea anemones are stinging polyps that spend most of their time attached to rocks on the sea floor or on coral reefs. Although they vary greatly in size and color, anemones have very few defining structures. As a result, classifying these animals based on morphology alone can be difficult.
Anemones are very simple animals, Rodríguez said. Because of this, they are grouped together by their lack of charactersfor example, the absence of a skeleton or the lack of colony-building, like you see in corals. So it wasnt a huge surprise when we began to look at their molecular data and found that the traditional classifications of anemones were wrong.
The researchers compared particular sections of DNA of more than 112 species of anemones collected from oceans around the world. Based on genetic data and the organization of their internal structures, the scientists reduced the sub-orders of anemones from four to two.
They also discovered that one of species that they analyzed is not a sea anemone at all. This animal, previously called Boloceroides daphneae, was discovered in 2006 in the deep east Pacific Ocean and labeled as one of the largest sea anemones in existence. But the new study shifts it outside of the tree of life for anemones. Instead, the researchers placed it in a newly created ordera classification equal to Carnivora in mammals or Crocodilia in reptilesunder the sub-class Hexacorallia, which includes stony corals, anemones, and black corals. The new name of the animal, which lives next to hydrothermal vents, is Relicanthus daphneae
The discovery of this new order of Cnidariaa phylum that includes jellyfish, corals, sea anemones, and their relativesis the equivalent to finding the first member of a group like primates or rodents, said Estefanía Rodríguez, an assistant curator in the Museums Division of Invertebrate Zoology and the lead author of the new publication. The difference is that most people are far more familiar with animals like chimpanzees and rats than they are with life on the ocean floor. But this amazing finding tells us that we have so much more to learn and discover in the ocean.
Rodríguez, along with an international team of researchers, conducted a four-year study to organize sea anemones in a natural, or phylogenetic, way, based on their evolutionary relationships. Sea anemones are stinging polyps that spend most of their time attached to rocks on the sea floor or on coral reefs. Although they vary greatly in size and color, anemones have very few defining structures. As a result, classifying these animals based on morphology alone can be difficult.
Anemones are very simple animals, Rodríguez said. Because of this, they are grouped together by their lack of charactersfor example, the absence of a skeleton or the lack of colony-building, like you see in corals. So it wasnt a huge surprise when we began to look at their molecular data and found that the traditional classifications of anemones were wrong.
The researchers compared particular sections of DNA of more than 112 species of anemones collected from oceans around the world. Based on genetic data and the organization of their internal structures, the scientists reduced the sub-orders of anemones from four to two.
They also discovered that one of species that they analyzed is not a sea anemone at all. This animal, previously called Boloceroides daphneae, was discovered in 2006 in the deep east Pacific Ocean and labeled as one of the largest sea anemones in existence. But the new study shifts it outside of the tree of life for anemones. Instead, the researchers placed it in a newly created ordera classification equal to Carnivora in mammals or Crocodilia in reptilesunder the sub-class Hexacorallia, which includes stony corals, anemones, and black corals. The new name of the animal, which lives next to hydrothermal vents, is Relicanthus daphneae
More at the link.
The PLOS ONE journal article is here: Hidden among Sea Anemones: The First Comprehensive Phylogenetic Reconstruction of the Order Actiniaria (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Hexacorallia) Reveals a Novel Group of Hexacorals
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DNA Study: Giant-Tentacled Creature Is New Kind of Animal (Original Post)
DreamGypsy
Jun 2014
OP
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)1. It's the 2nd coming ....
Pastafarians Arise!
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)3. I myself welcome our new giant-tentacled overlords.
AnnieBW
(10,426 posts)2. Cthulhu Fhtagn!
They found R'lyeh!
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)4. I'm more of a Rats in the Walls person, but I'll accept ...
AnnieBW
(10,426 posts)5. Love Luke-Ski!
Another fan of Luke-ski! Yay!
littlemissmartypants
(22,656 posts)6. Thank you. nt