Morphological, molecular and biogeographic evidence supporting two new species in the Uroptychus naso complex, Crustacea: Decapoda: Chirostylidae (CERF Marine Biodiversity Hub Project)

Molecular phylogenies and morphological description of specimens were involved to delineate cryptic species within the Uroptychus naso species complex (Chirostylidae) and reconstruct their phylogeneographic relationships in the light of subrecent geological events. Specimens were collected throughout the known distribution range of the species: north-western Australia, and Indo-Pacific Ocean (Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and Japan).Molecular markers involved were the mitochondrial COI and 16S regions and the nuclear H3 histonic gene. GenBank Accession numbers were assigned for the newly produced DNA sequences.
To elucidate cryptic speciation events within this species and to identify potential large scale geological events responsible for the speciation.
This research is part of the CERF Project. Further papers will be produced following analyses of additional material at species, genus and family levels involving the same geographical region.