Ref ID : 5853
B.G.M. Jamieson; A phenetic and cladistic study of spermatozoal ultrastructure in the Oligochaeta (Annelida). Hydrobiologia 115:3-13, 1984
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Spermatozoal ultrastructure of nine oligochaete families has been examined for congruence with phylogenetic and taxonomic systems for the Oligochaeta based on general morphology, particularly the holomorphological hennigian analysis of Jamienson (1978, 1980, 1983). Estimation of congruence has been made following phenetic and cladistic (phylogenetic) analysis. Correspondence, in phenograms and phylograms, of sperm types with taxonomic and phylogenetic groupings previously recognized is generally good. Departure from this rule in the similarity of the phreodrilid sperm to that of the Lumbricina suggests a corresponding alteration of fertilization biology in the phreodrilids. The results indicate that the Haplotaxidae lie at the base of the opisthopores though they do not unequivocally contraindicate acceptance of a Haplotaxis like form as a stem form of the Haplotaxida (opisthopores and Haplotaxidae) and Tubificida. An even more basal position for prosopores, now represented by the Lumbriculida, cannot yet be dismissed.