Does sediment composition sort kinorhynch communities? An ecomorphological approach through geometric morphometrics

Type Article
Date 2020-02
Language English
Author(s) Cepeda Diego1, Trigo Dolores1, Pardos Fernando1, Sánchez Nuria2
Affiliation(s) 1 : Universidad Complutense, Department of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Madrid, 28040, Spain
2 : Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer, Deep-sea Laboratory, Plouzané, 29280, France
Source Scientific Reports (2045-2322) (Springer Science and Business Media LLC), 2020-02 , Vol. 10 , N. 1 , P. 2603 (12p.)
DOI 10.1038/s41598-020-59511-4
WOS© Times Cited 4
Abstract

Ecomorphology studies the relationship between organisms’ morphology and environment features. To better understand whether the shape of the body and the appendages involved in the movement is correlated to sediment composition in meiofaunal organisms, we study the evolved morphological adaptations to environment in selected taxa of the phylum Kinorhyncha: the allomalorhagid families Dracoderidae and Pycnophyidae, and the cyclorhagid genus Echinoderes. The selected taxa include the most diverse groups of Kinorhyncha worldwide, representing the 75.5% of the total phylum diversity. Widened, plump bodies and lateral terminal spines may be adaptive for species living in coarse, more heterogeneous sediments, as they could maintain a more powerful musculature to actively displace the sediment grains applying a greater force. Conversely, slender, vermiform bodies and lateral terminal spines would represent an adaptation of species inhabiting fine, more homogeneous sediments where there would not be much need to exert a high force to displace the sediment particles, and a more vermiform shape would even favour the burrowing of the animal through the smaller interstices. The studied kinorhynch taxa would also be adapted to the higher velocity of the sea-water and the intense erosion and transportation of heterogeneous sediments by possessing more robust bodies, avoiding getting laid off substratum under these conditions. These findings provide evolutionary evidence that body shape in the studied kinorhynch groups is adapted to environment.

Full Text
File Pages Size Access
Publisher's official version 12 1 MB Open access
Supplementary Information. 6 933 KB Open access
Top of the page