Dataset Information

A new flagship peritrich (Ciliophora, Peritrichida) from the River Rhine, Germany: Apocarchesium arndti n. sp.

ABSTRACT: We discovered a free-living peritrich ciliate with outstanding features in the River Rhine. Its morphology and 18S rRNA gene sequence were studied with standard methods. Apocarchesium arndti n. sp. has several peculiarities. (i) There are ordinary zooids, macrozooids, and microzooids, which form a hemispherical rosette on a discoidal base, the stalk dish, locking the approximately 18 microm wide and up to 2 mm long, spirally contracting colony stalk. (ii) The stalk myoneme is connected only to the microzooids. (iii) A rosette contains up to 50 zooids not connected to each other but individually attached to the stalk dish with the scopula. (iv) The ordinary zooids are epistylidid, trumpet-shaped (approximately 6:1 length:width), about 180 x 30 microm in size, and have an ellipsoidal macronucleus subapically between oral cavity and dorsal side. (v) The myoneme system of the zooids, which can contract individually, forms a tube-like structure in the narrow posterior half of the cell. (vi) The silverline pattern belongs to the transverse-striate type. (vii) The oral apparatus is of usual structure, with kinety 1 of peniculus 3 distinctly shortened proximally. (viii) The 18S rRNA places A. arndti n. sp. as a distinct lineage near Vorticella and Carchesium. These data are used to provide an improved diagnosis of the genus Apocarchesium. Features (i)-(iii) and the molecular data indicate that Apocarchesium could be the type genus of a new peritrich family.

SUBMITTER: Norf H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3038309 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A new flagship peritrich (Ciliophora, Peritrichida) from the River Rhine, Germany: Apocarchesium arndti n. sp.

Norf Helge H Foissner Wilhelm W

The Journal of eukaryotic microbiology 20100310 3

We discovered a free-living peritrich ciliate with outstanding features in the River Rhine. Its morphology and 18S rRNA gene sequence were studied with standard methods. Apocarchesium arndti n. sp. has several peculiarities. (i) There are ordinary zooids, macrozooids, and microzooids, which form a hemispherical rosette on a discoidal base, the stalk dish, locking the approximately 18 microm wide and up to 2 mm long, spirally contracting colony stalk. (ii) The stalk myoneme is connected only to t ...[more]

PMID: 20337807

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Project description:BackgroundMammalian fossils from the Eppelsheim Formation (Dinotheriensande) have been a benchmark for Neogene vertebrate palaeontology since 200 years. Worldwide famous sites like Eppelsheim serve as key localities for biochronologic, palaeobiologic, environmental, and mammal community studies. So far the formation is considered to be of early Late Miocene age (~9.5 Ma, Vallesian), representing the oldest sediments of the Rhine River. The stratigraphic unity of the formation and of its fossil content was disputed at times, but persists unresolved.Principal findingsHere we investigate a new fossil sample from Sprendlingen, composed by over 300 mammalian specimens and silicified wood. The mammals comprise entirely Middle Miocene species, like cervids Dicrocerus elegans, Paradicrocerus elegantulus, and deinotheres Deinotherium bavaricum and D. levius. A stratigraphic evaluation of Miocene Central European deer and deinothere species proof the stratigraphic inhomogenity of the sample, and suggest late Middle Miocene (~12.5 Ma) reworking of early Middle Miocene (~15 Ma) sediments. This results agree with taxonomic and palaeoclimatic analysis of plant fossils from above and within the mammalian assemblage. Based on the new fossil sample and published data three biochronologic levels within the Dinotheriensand fauna can be differentiated, corresponding to early Middle Miocene (late Orleanian to early Astaracian), late Middle Miocene (late Astaracian), and early Late Miocene (Vallesian) ages.Conclusions/significanceThis study documents complex faunal mixing of classical Dinotheriensand fauna, covering at least six million years, during a time of low subsidence in the Mainz Basin and shifts back the origination of the Rhine River by some five million years. Our results have severe implications for biostratigraphy and palaeobiology of the Middle to Late Miocene. They suggest that turnover events may be obliterated and challenge the proposed 'supersaturated' biodiversity, caused by Middle Miocene superstites, of Vallesian ecosystems in Central Europe.

Project description:Neokeronopsis (Afrokeronopsis) aurea nov. subgen., nov. spec. was discovered in soil from the floodplain of a small river in the Krueger National Park, Republic of South Africa. Its morphology, ontogenesis, and 18S rDNA were studied with standard methods. Furthermore, we supplemented the data on N. (N.) spectabilis by reinvestigating the preparations deposited in the British Museum of Natural History. Neokeronopsis (Afrokeronopsis) aurea is a very conspicuous ciliate because it has an average size of 330 × 120 μm and is golden yellow due to the orange-coloured cytoplasm and citrine cortical granules. Further main characteristics include the semirigid body; the urostylid cirral pattern with a distinct corona of frontal and pseudobuccal cirri both originating from the midventral rows; multiple anterior fragmentation of dorsal kineties 1-3; multiple posterior fragmentation of kinety 3, commencing with an unique whirl of kinetofragments; three caudal cirri; an oxytrichid/cyrtohymenid oral apparatus with polystichad paroral membrane and buccal depression; a single oral primordium developing along the transverse cirral row; and an oxytrichid 18S rDNA. These peculiarities are used to establish the new oxytrichid family Neokeronopsidae, the new subgenus Afrokeronopsis, and the new species N. (A.) aurea. Further, these features confirm the CEUU hypothesis, i.e., convergent evolution of a midventral cirral pattern in urostylid and oxytrichid hypotrichs; additionally, N. (A.) aurea is the first (semi)rigid hypotrich with cortical granules and the second one with midventral rows, breaking the granule and flexibility dogmas. These and other observations show that the phylogeny of the hypotrichs is full of convergences. Thus, only a combined effort of classical and molecular phylogeneticists will provide the data needed for a natural classification. Based on the CEUU hypothesis, the molecular data, and literature evidence, we suggest that midventral oxytrichids should be ranked as distinct families; accordingly, we establish a further new family, the Uroleptidae, which forms a distinct clade within the oxytrichid molecular trees. Neokeronopsis is possibly related to Pattersoniella because it has the same special mode of forming the buccal cirri and possesses a buccal depression found also in Steinia, a close relative of Pattersoniella. The large size and conspicuous colour make N. (A.) aurea a biogeographic flagship possibly confined to Africa or Gondwana, while Neokeronopsis (N.) spectabilis (Kahl, 1932) is an Eurasian flagship.

Dataset Information

A new flagship peritrich (Ciliophora, Peritrichida) from the River Rhine, Germany: Apocarchesium arndti n. sp.

Publications

A new flagship peritrich (Ciliophora, Peritrichida) from the River Rhine, Germany: Apocarchesium arndti n. sp.

Similar Datasets

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