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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Biology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1380594
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in crustacean research from the 10th International Crustacean Congress View all 11 articles

Shape matters: investigating the utility of geometric morphometric techniques in the deep-sea isopod family Macrostylidae (Isopoda

Provisionally accepted
Anchita Casaubon Anchita Casaubon *Torben Riehl Torben Riehl
  • Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Accurate taxonomic classification of deep-sea taxa is often impeded by the presence of highly morphologically similar but genetically distinct species. This issue is particularly pronounced in the isopods of the deep-sea family Macrostylidae, which exhibit remarkably low morphological variation despite significant genetic diversity. In this study, we present the first application of geometric morphometric techniques to 41 specimens across five species of deep-sea macrostylid isopods collected from Icelandic waters. Our results suggest that geometric morphometric techniques can effectively discriminate between macrostylid species. These techniques, hence, promise to be an important addition to the toolset of macrostylid taxonomists.

    Keywords: BIOICE, Morphometrics, Integrative taxonomy, macrostylid, Iceland, IceAGE

    Received: 01 Feb 2024; Accepted: 19 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Casaubon and Riehl. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Anchita Casaubon, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Frankfurt, 60325, Hesse, Germany

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