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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 6644

Mark E. Siddall and Eugene M. Burreson; Leeches (Oligochaeta?: Euhirudinea), their phylogeny and the evolution of life-history strategies. Hydrobiologia 334:277-285, 1996

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Powerful tests of adaptational hypotheses can be made in the context of well-supported cladograms by investigating the most parsimonious transformation of intrinsic or extrinsic factors to explain their distribution across taxa in a cladogram. Such test are used here to discover patterns of life-history evolution in leeches; in particular in relation to exploitation of terrestrial and aquatic habitats, parental care and resource utilization. Moreover, the relationships among leeches, acanthobdellids and branchiobdellids is reaffirmed as is their collective placement within the oligochaetes.