Proposal to complete a phylogenetic taxonomy and systematic revision for freshwater crayfish (Astacida

• Main Authors: Elizabeth A. Sinclair, James W. Fetzner, Jennifer Buhay, Keith, A. Crandall
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Key words; freshwater crayfish; phylogeny; systematics; DNA; taxonomy; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.539.3803; http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/fetzner/pubs/FC14_final.pdf

Freshwater crayfish form a monophyletic group sister to clawed lobsters, and represent approximately 600 described species. These species are distributed on all continents except Antarctica with centres of diversity in the southeast United States and in Victoria, Australia. Taxonomically, the freshwater crayfish are grouped into two monophyletic super families representing the Northern Hemisphere Astacoidea and the southern hemisphere Parastacoidea. While there is ample evidence for the monophyly of the freshwater crayfish as well as for these two groups, the lower taxonomic designations do not reflect evolutionary history as estimated through multi-gene sequence analysis and associated phylogenetic reconstruction. Recent studies using molecular techniques have also identified large numbers of cryptic species within formerly designated single species. We have assembled an outstanding international group of researchers with expertise in taxonomy, fieldwork, and molecular systematics to complete a phylogeny for all freshwater crayfish. Using the estimated phylogeny, we will then revise crayfish taxonomy to reflect our understanding of the evolutionary history of the group. Here, we outline what we currently know about freshwater crayfish and how we plan to achieve our goal of a global crayfish phylogeny and systematic revision.