Zoological Studies

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

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).