Mycalina: another crack in the Poecilosclerida framework
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Updated: May 10, 2026

Characterization of Calcification Events Using Live Optical and Electron Microscopy Techniques in a Marine Tubeworm
Published on: February 28, 2017
Eduardo Hajdu1, Thiago S de Paula, Niamh E Redmond
1*Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista, s/n, 20940-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil; Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcantara Gomes, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rua São Francisco Xavier 524, PHLC, sala 205, 20550-013, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil; Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA; National Systematics Laboratory of NOAA Fisheries Service and Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 20560, USA.
Abstract:
This is the first phylogenetic analysis integrating both morphological and molecular data of the sponge suborder Mycalina (Poecilosclerida), which was erected in 1994. A cladistic analysis of morphology supported the monophyly of Cladorhizidae (including Euchelipluma), Guitarridae (excluding Euchelipluma), Isodictyidae, Latrunculiidae, and Podospongiidae but rejected monophyly for Desmacellidae, Esperiopsidae, Hamacanthidae, and Mycalidae. Analyses of partial 16S and partial 28S rRNA datasets combined, as well as that of a complete 18S rDNA dataset, suggest that Mycalina is not monophyletic; Biemnidae is only distantly related to other poecilosclerids; Merlia and Desmacella branch near the base of a diverse Poecilosclerida clade; Mycalidae is monophyletic (excluding Mycale [Anomomycale] titubans in 18S); and Esperiopsidae and Isodictyidae form a clade. Analyses of the two molecular datasets differed on the monophyly of Podospongiidae and about the relationship of Podospongiidae to Isodictyidae + Esperiopsidae.
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