Squids, and Octopodes, and Nautiluses, Oh My! – #365papers – 2018 – 49

Sanchez, Setiamarga, Tuanapaya, Tongtherm, Winkelmann, Schmidbaur, Umino, Albertin, Allcock, Perales-Raya, Gleadall, Strugnell, Smiakov, and Nabhitabhata, 2018, Genus-level phylogeny of cephalopods using molecular markers: current status and problematic areas: PeerJ v. 6, e4331

What’s it about?

Using DNA sequences, the authors sort out the evolutionary relationships among squids, octopuses, nautiluses, and cuttlefish.

Why does it matter?

There are over 800 living species of cephalopods. There seems to be some obvious evolutionary groups (like the squids are distinct from octopuses), but there are some questionable relationships, like where do cuttlefish go? or how about the chambered nautilus? This DNA study helps clarify these relationships.

Why did I read this?

Loligo is the genus of one kind of squid. It is also my favorite username ever. In high school my nickname was squid which changed to Loligo in college. Plus, if I had to be an invertebrate, I’d totally be a cephalopod!