Systematics and phylogeny of the cheilostome bryozoan Doryporella

• Published in: Zoologica Scripta
• Main Authors: Grischenko, Andrei V., Shunsuke F., Mawatari, Paul D., Taylor
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2000
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1463-6409.2000.00038.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1463-6409.2000.00038.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1463-6409.2000.00038.x

The four nominal species of the Arctic‐Boreal anascan bryozoan Doryporella Norman are revised. Colonies of Doryporella are small, typically encrust shells and pebbles, and have autozooids with frontal walls bearing a distinctive reticulate pattern of polygonal ridges. High resolution SEM shows the frontal wall to be an interior wall (cryptocyst), contrary to previous studies which have regarded it as an exterior wall (gymnocyst). The inter‐relationships between the species assigned to Doryporella are assessed cladistically using skeletal characters. The type species ( D. spathulifera ) and two other species ( D. alcicornis and D. armata ) form a well‐supported clade, but the fourth species ( D. reticulata ) is more closely‐related to certain other calloporid genera. Therefore, the reticulate frontal wall is inferred to have evolved twice and D. reticulata is removed to Doryporellina gen. n. Biogeographical distributions of the four species are reviewed.