Phylogeny of the Crustacea Based on 18S Ribosomal Nucleotide Sequences

甲壳动物是一大群形态多样的淡水和海洋动物，其进化关系存在争议。佛罗里达州立大学的Larry Abele博士和他的同事们正在使用现代DNA分子分析来从许多藤壶、螃蟹、桡足类、虾和其他物种的代表性样本中获得核苷酸序列数据。因此，它们可以获得可比较的、同源的特征，用于重建这些不同甲壳类谱系之间的系统发育分支模式。反过来，这些知识将允许测试关于这些动物的形态多样化、地理分布和生态专门化的想法。

The Crustacea are a large and morphologically diverse group of freshwater and marine animals whose evolutionary relationships are controversial. Dr. Larry Abele at Florida State University and colleagues are employing modern molecular analyses of DNA to obtain nucleotide sequence data from representative samples of many groups of barnacles, crabs, copepods, shrimps, and others. They can thus acquire comparable, homologous characters for the reconstruction of phylogenetic branching patterns among these various crustacean lineages. In turn such knowledge will permit testing of ideas about morphological diversification in these animals, geographic distribution, and ecological specialization.