Sequence based evolutionary relationships among annelids
Bibhuti Prasad Barik, Biswajyoti Narayana Sahoo
Annelids are important and diverse group of animals with worldwide distribution. Evolutionary history of this group is still a not resolved. In the current study different coding gene sequences were retrieved and large scale phylogenetic analysis were carried out using multiple methods. The relative study indicates coding genes as phylogenetically informative. The trees showed more or less similar species clustered together but did not form distinct clades as per their lifestyles and morphological similarities. The result also showed that several species appear to be polyphyletic and several unrelated species appear to share the same clade. This may be attributed to adaptive radiation or mutations.