Pteropoda

Pteropoda
Temporal range: Campanian–Recent
A sea angel of the species Clione limacina
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Clade: Euopisthobranchia
Order: Pteropoda
Cuvier (1804)

Pteropoda (common name pteropods, from the Greek meaning "wing-foot") are specialized free-swimming pelagic sea snails and sea slugs, marine opisthobranch gastropods. Most live in the top 10 m of the ocean and are less than 1 cm long. The monophyly of Pteropoda is the subject of a lengthy debate; they have even been considered as paraphyletic with respect to cephalopods.[1] Current consensus, guided by molecular studies, leans towards interpreting the group as monophyletic.[2]

Pteropoda encompasses the two clades Thecosomata, the sea butterflies, and Gymnosomata, the sea angels. The Thecosomata (lit. "case-body"[3]) have a shell, while the Gymnosomata ("naked body") do not. The two clades may or may not be sister taxa; if not, their similarity (in that they are both pelagic, small, and transparent, and both groups swim using wing-like flaps (parapodia) which protrude from their bodies) may reflect convergent adaptation to their particular lifestyle.

Taxonomy

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The group Pteropoda was established by Cuvier as "ptéropodes" in 1804.[4] François Péron and Charles Alexandre Lesueur thought the group to be larger, and so they also included the opisthobranch taxa (Phyllirhoë and Glaucus), the heteropoda taxa (Carinaria and Firola), and even the Ctenophora (Callianira). In 1810, these authors divided the whole group in two separate groups: Those with a shell and those without a shell.

In 1824, H.M.D. de Blainville named these two groups Gymnosomata and Thecosomata and named the combining order Aporobranchia instead of Pteropoda.[5] He rejected the additional genera, except Phyllirhoë which he upgraded to a third group that he called Psilosomata. Only much later was Phyllirhoë classified within the order Nudibranchia.

Other attempts were made to describe the Pteropoda: J.E. Gray divided the Pteropoda into Dactylobranchia (with just the genus Cavolinia) and Pterobranchia (including all the other genera).[6] Cuvier (and his followers) did not accept the classification by de Blainville; they preferred the original classification as described in Le Règne Animal.

Rang (1829) followed the Cuvierian classification but tried to include the character of having a distinct head or not.[7] The German naturalist L. Oken went one step further and, for the sake of symmetry, wanted each order to contain four families and each family to contain four genera.[8][failed verification] P.A. 1829, divided the Pteropoda according to the size of their fins: "Macroptérygiens" (including only Pneumonoderma) and "Microptérygiens" (including all the others). W.B. Clark (1829) treated the Pteropoda as a family and emended the spelling to Pteropodidae (a name now re-used for a family of fruit bats)

Finally, all these attempts were abandoned and, as more and more species were described as a result of several scientific expeditions, the classification of the Pteropoda into Thecosomata and Gymnosomata was generally adopted.[a]

The relationship between these two clades is not unequivocally established, but it seems that they are sister taxa.[2]

Evolutionary history

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Pteropods are estimated to have originated during the Early Cretaceous, around 133 million years ago, with the diversification into the major lineages occurring during the mid-late Cretaceous. The oldest known fossil pteropod is a member of Limacinidae from the early-middle Campanian deposits of the San Juan Islands.[9][10]

Phylogeny

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Cladogram of genera and species of pteropods.
  Pteropoda  
  Gymnosomata  
         

  Clione antarctica

  Clione limacina

         

  Paedoclione doliiformis

         

  Pneumodermopsis spoeli

  Thecosomata  
  Pseudothecosomata  
         

  Cymbulia sibogae

  Peracle reticulata

  Euthecosomata  
  Limacinoidea  

  Heliconoides inflatus

  Limacinidae  
         
         

  Limacina lesueurii

         

  Limacina bulimoides

  Limacina trochiformis

  Cavolinioidea  
         

  Creseis acicula

  Creseis virgula

  Cavoliniidae  
         

  Styliola subula

         

  Hyalocylis striata

         

  Clio pyramidata

         

  Clio cuspidata

  Cuvierina atlantica

         
         

  Cavolinia inflexa

  Diacavolinia longirostris

         

  Diacria trispinosa

  Telodiacria danae

The phylogenetic tree has been inferred from 2,654 nuclear proteins (representing 834,394 concatenated amino acid positions).[11]

Threats

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Vulnerability to ocean acidification

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Unhealthy pteropod showing effects of ocean acidification

A study was conducted on the West Coast of the United States to see ocean acidification's effects on pteropods.[12] Limacina helicina was used to test the sensitivity to decreasing pH.[12] This species of pteropod is potentially vulnerable to the corrosive waters associated with ocean acidification due to their calcium carbonate shell.[13] The shell of a pteropod was immersed in ocean water with the projected pH level that the water will reach by the year 2100. After a month and a half in the water, the shell had almost completely dissolved.[12]

Distribution

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Pteropods are found in all major oceans, usually 0–10 metres (0–33 ft) below the ocean surface and in all levels of latitude. Pteropods can be found lower than 10 meters, but in less amounts in terms of biomass, however, pteropod distribution is more spread out deeper based on findings. This can be explained as Pteropods from tropical areas become more common in deeper areas. They are not found commonly in the deep sea, in fact, few live lower than 500 meters below sea level. Continental shelves, areas containing many opportunities for nutrients, and productivity are locations in which Pteropods are usually populous, according to patterns in data. Springtime is a peak season for pteropoda, as they reach higher populations, though data shows that pteropoda south of the equator are less abundant seasonally. In addition, current data suggests that 93% of the world's pteropods are part of the Thecosomata family, while the 7% are Gymnosomata.[14]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Many of the new Pteropoda species were first described by French zoologists, for example, Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard, Paul Rang, Alcide d'Orbigny, and Louis François Auguste Souleyet.

References

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  1. ^ Wägele, Heike; Klussmann-Kolb, Annette; Verbeek, Eva; Schrödl, Michael (2013). "Flashback and foreshadowing – a review of the taxon Opisthobranchia". Organisms Diversity & Evolution. 14: 133–149. doi:10.1007/s13127-013-0151-5.
  2. ^ a b Klussmann-Kolb, A.; Dinapoli, A. (2006). "Systematic position of the pelagic Thecosomata and Gymnosomata within Opisthobranchia (Mollusca, Gastropoda) - revival of the Pteropoda". Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research. 44 (2): 118. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0469.2006.00351.x.
  3. ^ "theco-". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  4. ^ Cuvier, G. (1804). "Mémoire sur l'Hyale et Ie Pneumoderme". Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris. 4: 232.
  5. ^ de Blainville, H.M.D. (1824). Diet. d. Sci. Nat (in French). Vol. xxxii. p. 271.
  6. ^ Gray, J.E. (1821). London Medical Repository. p. 235.
  7. ^ Rang, P. (1829). Manuel de l'histoire naturelle des mollusques et leurs coquilles [Handbook of the Natural History of Molluscs and their Shells] (in French).
  8. ^ Rang, S. (1825). "Description d'un genre nouveau de la classe des Ptéropodes" [Description of a new genera in the class Pteropoda]. Annales des Sciences Naturelles. 1 (in French). V: 284.
  9. ^ Peijnenburg, Katja T.C.A.; Janssen, Arie W.; Wall-Palmer, Deborah; Goetze, Erica; Maas, Amy E.; Todd, Jonathan A.; Marlétaz, Ferdinand (13 October 2020). "The origin and diversification of pteropods precede past perturbations in the Earth's carbon cycle". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. 117 (41): 25609–25617. Bibcode:2020PNAS..11725609P. doi:10.1073/pnas.1920918117. PMC 7568333. PMID 32973093.
  10. ^ Janssen, A.W.; Goedert, J.L. (2016). "Notes on the systematics, morphology, and biostratigraphy of fossil holoplanktonic Mollusca, [part] 24. First observation of a genuinely Late Mesozoic thecosomatous pteropod". Basteria. 80: 59–63.
  11. ^ Peijnenburg, Katja T.C.A.; Janssen, Arie W.; Wall-Palmer, Deborah; Goetze, Erica; Maas, Amy E.; Todd, Jonathan A.; Marlétaz, Ferdinand (24 September 2020). "The origin and diversification of pteropods precede past perturbations in the Earth's carbon cycle". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. 117 (41): 25609–25617. Bibcode:2020PNAS..11725609P. doi:10.1073/pnas.1920918117. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 7568333. PMID 32973093.
  12. ^ a b c Bednaršek, N.; Feely, R.A.; Reum, J.C.P.; Peterson, B.; Menkel, J.; Alin, S.R.; Hales, B. (2014). "Limacina helicina shell dissolution as an indicator of declining habitat suitability owing to ocean acidification in the California Current Ecosystem". Proc. R. Soc. B. 281 (1785): 20140123. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0123. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 4024287. PMID 24789895.
  13. ^ Comeau, S.; Gorsky, G.; Jeffree, R.; Teyssié, J.-L.; Gattuso, J.-P. (4 September 2009). "Impact of ocean acidification on a key Arctic pelagic mollusc (Limacina helicina)". Biogeosciences. 6 (9): 1877–1882. Bibcode:2009BGeo....6.1877C. doi:10.5194/bg-6-1877-2009. hdl:10453/14721. ISSN 1726-4189.
  14. ^ Bednaršek, N.; Možina, J.; Vogt, M.; O'Brien, C.; Tarling, G.A. (10 Dec 2012). "The global distribution of pteropods and their contribution to carbonate and carbon biomass in the modern ocean". Earth System Science Data. 4 (1): 167–186. Bibcode:2012ESSD....4..167B. doi:10.5194/essd-4-167-2012. hdl:20.500.11850/60379. Retrieved 18 June 2018.
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