Vol. 45 No. 1, 2006

First Application of Morphometrics in a Study of Variations in Uncinial Shape Present within the Terebellidae (Polychaeta)

André Rinaldo Senna Garraffoni^1,2,* and Maurício de Garcia Camargo¹

¹Centro de Estudos do Mar, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Av. Beira mar s/n, CP 50002, Pontal do Paraná, PR 83255-000, Brazil
²Curso de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas, Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Zoologia, Curitiba, PR 81531-980, Brazil

André Rinaldo Senna Garraffoni and Maurício de Garcia Camargo (2006) In this study, morphometric analyses of the uncinial shape were used to differentiate morphological groups within 4 Terebellidae subfamilies. Thirty species were examined, and 17 distances were measured and analyzed using non-metric multidimensional scaling (n-MDS) and cluster analysis. The results derived from both techniques were quite similar and clearly demonstrated that there are 2 different character states for the shape of the manubrium (one for the Trichobranchinae and another for the other subfamilies), and that 3 different character states define the overall uncini shape (one for Terebellinae and Thelepodinae, another for Polycirrinae, and yet another for Trichobranchinae).

Key words: Coding, Terebelliformia, Terebellida, Neurochaetae, Cladistics.

*Correspondence: E-mail: garraffoni@ufpr.br