Sundberg Per
University of Gothenburg, Department of Marine Sciences, P.O. Box 463, SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden.
Zoolog Sci. 2015 Dec;32(6):501-6. doi: 10.2108/zs140254.
Developments in nemertean research over the last 35+ years are reviewed from a systematist's perspective. Nemertean systematics and classification, until fairly recently, was not based on explicit phylogenetic hypotheses, but rather on subjective assessment of "important characters". The first cladistic analyses appeared in the 1980s and were criticized at the time by leading researchers in nemertean systematics for not taking into account convergent evolution in ribbon worm morphology. The first molecular study involving the phylum Nemertea appeared in 1992, followed by reports later in the 1990s and early 2000s. Molecular information is now commonplace in nemertean research, and has changed our understanding of evolutionary relationships within the phylum, as well as our view on species and intraspecific variation. Challenges in nemertean systematics and taxonomy are discussed, with special emphasis on future species descriptions, and how to deal with a number of species names that in all likelihood never will be encountered again. Suggestions for how to deal with these challenges are discussed.
从系统学家的角度回顾了过去35年多来纽形动物研究的进展。直到最近，纽形动物的系统分类并非基于明确的系统发育假说，而是基于对“重要特征”的主观评估。第一批分支系统学分析出现在20世纪80年代，当时受到纽形动物系统学领域主要研究者的批评，认为没有考虑到纽形动物形态的趋同进化。涉及纽形动物门的第一项分子研究出现在1992年，随后在20世纪90年代末和21世纪初有相关报道。分子信息现在在纽形动物研究中很常见，它改变了我们对该门内进化关系的理解，以及我们对物种和种内变异的看法。讨论了纽形动物系统学和分类学中的挑战，特别强调了未来的物种描述，以及如何处理一些很可能再也不会遇到的物种名称。还讨论了应对这些挑战的建议。
