Exploring Diversity, Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) from Marine Habitats. Novel Taxa with Internal Costae

Abstract

In many marine littoral and sublittoral benthic habitats, we find small diatoms with few features resolvable with light microscopy (LM) other than internal costae across their valves. While classically those internal costae have defined their identification and classification, the use of electron microscopy and of molecular data have started to reveal the true diversity of unrelated forms and genera (e.g., Anaulus, Eunotogramma, Hustedtiella, or Plagiogramma) which possess these structures. Here we describe the new genus Ambo, in an attempt to clarify some of the polyphyly of taxa with internal costa by formally transferring Anaulus balticus, Anaulus simonsenii, and Plagiogramma tenuissimum as well as Ambo gallaeciae, described here. Related to this, we attempt to document and characterize the genus Anaulus itself, which was formally described by Ehrenberg with an illustration. A search by LM of mica designated by Ehrenberg as the holotype of Anaulus scalaris, the generitype of Anaulus, failed to recover a specimen which adequately describes the genus to the exclusion of other genera with internal costa. We also present morphological and molecular data for Anaulus creticus and suggest a new genus-Ceratanaulus-to reflect the distinct morphological and molecular characters we documented.