Nearly 400 images of in situ, intact specimen, dissection, histological, and host organisms used for identification of 30 Zoanthidea taxa have been added to Morphbank as electronic vouchers in support of the publication entitled Evolutionary transitions in symbioses: dramatic reductions in bathymetric and geographic ranges of Zoanthidea coincide with loss of symbioses with invertebrates released in the Early View (articles online in advance of print) of Molecular Ecology on May 24, 2010. These collections of images are the first of any cnidarian submitted to Morphbank. The results indicate that the morphological characters that define the higher taxa of the non-brachycnemic Zoanthidea are homoplasious and the images are intended to both document the specimens and encourage the identification of phylogenetically informative morphological characters for these enigmatic taxa.

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Morphbank Collection of Cnidaria Images

Molecular Ecology journal article May 24, 2010: Evolutionary transitions in symbioses: dramatic reductions in bathymetric and geographic ranges of Zoanthidea coincide with loss of symbioses with invertebrates
Timothy D. Swain*†, *Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4295, USA , †Present address: Northwestern University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2145 North Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208, USA Correspondence to Timothy D. Swain; E-mail: t-swain@northwestern.edu