The origin of many of the defining features of animal body plans, such as symmetry, nervous system, and the mesoderm, remains shrouded in mystery because of major uncertainty regarding the emergence… (More)
The phylogenetic diversification of Hexapoda is still not fully understood. Morphological and molecular analyses have resulted in partly contradicting hypotheses. In molecular analyses, 18S sequences… (More)
Calcareous sponges (Porifera, Calcarea) play an important role for our understanding of early metazoan evolution, since several molecular studies suggested their closer relationship to Eumetazoa than… (More)
The current morphological classification of the Demospongiae G4 clade was tested using large subunit ribosomal RNA (LSU rRNA) sequences from 119 taxa. Fifty-three mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 1… (More)
Sponges (phylum Porifera) are early-diverging metazoa renowned for establishing complex microbial symbioses. Here we present a global Porifera microbiome survey, set out to establish the ecological… (More)
Margaritifera margaritifera and M. auricularia are among the most endangered freshwater mussels in the world, and the only species of the genus found in Europe. Our genetic study explores allozymic… (More)
Sponges (phylum Porifera) are a diverse taxon of benthic aquatic animals of great ecological, commercial, and biopharmaceutical importance. They are arguably the earliest-branching metazoan taxon,… (More)
The dichotomy between high microbial abundance (HMA) and low microbial abundance (LMA) sponges has been long recognized. In the present study, 56 sponge species from three geographic regions (greater… (More)
The first mitochondrial (mt) genomes of demosponges have recently been sequenced and appear to be markedly different from published eumetazoan mt genomes. Here we show that the mt genome of the… (More)