Why Williamson’s (2014) theory of hybridogenesis fails to explain the evolution of the Rhizocephala

Abstract

All available biological, ultrastructural, and molecular data support the conclusion that the cirripedian suborders, Rhizocephala and Thoracica, are closely related. Williamson’s speculations (Williamson, D. I., 2014. The origin of barnacles (Thecostraca, Cirripedia). Crustaceana,87: 755-765) that the so-called hybridogenesis can explain how Rhizocephala evolved, rest on a selective choice of other authors’ data and an ignorance of solid facts derived from decades of comparative anatomical and molecular studies.