Taxacom: strict cladists war against paraphyletic taxa

[Leslie Watling]

Always interested in amphipods and the Baikal fauna is remarkable.
The problem that you detail might be resolved with better genetic data. I
have been working with a group of people on octocorals and they have found
when using a lot more genetic data that some relationships in the group,
that were based on a couple of mitochondrial genes, do not hold up. More
specifically, they are using ultra-conserved elements from the nuclear
genome, thousands of gene fragments. In some ways, it is not surprising
because research is now showing that in some groups the mitochondrial genes
and the nuclear genes are evolving at different rates. So, if the Baikal
fauna looks like Gammarus due to a mitochondrial gene, those amphipods
might not look like Gammarus when a large array of nuclear gene fragments
are used.

Best,
Les Watling
Professor Emeritus
School of Life Sciences
University of Hawaii

Professor Emeritus
School of Marine Sciences
University of Maine