Abstract
Hermissenda crassicornis is a model organism used in various fields of research including neurology, ecology, pharmacology, and toxicology. In order to investigate the systematics of this species and the presence of cryptic species in H. crassicornis, we conducted a comprehensive molecular and morphological analysis of this species covering its entire range across the North Pacific Ocean. We determined that H. crassicornis constitutes a species complex of three distinct species. The name Hermissensa crassicornis is retained for the northeast Pacific species, occurring from Alaska to Northern California. The name H. opalescens is reinstated for a species occurring from the Sea of Cortez to Northern California. Finally, the name H. emurai is maintained for the northwestern species, found in Japan and in the Russian Far East. These three species have consistent morphological and color pattern differences that can be used for identification in the field.
Highlights
The repeatability of experiments involving living organisms heavily relies on the accuracy of species identifications
The existence of cryptic and pseudocryptic species constitutes a major challenge to organismal biology research and underpins the importance of modern taxonomy and systematics
Experiments based on H. crassicornis as a model organism and published previous to this study might need to be re-evaluated in light of these results
Summary
The repeatability of experiments involving living organisms heavily relies on the accuracy of species identifications. If separate studies on the same model organism use specimens that belong to different taxa, the results of those studies may not be comparable. Taxonomic accuracy is generally not an issue when dealing with laboratory strains or model species raised in captivity for generations such as Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, or Aplysia californica, but it can be important when research animals are collected in the field. Because H. crassicornis has an unusually broad geographic range, across the North Pacific Ocean [23], specimens collected for applied studies have diverse origins, typically from
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