Caprellidea have undergone a complicated morphological evolution. Most caprellid families exhibit strongly degenerated third and fourth pereopods (walking thoracic limbs) and abdomens. However, a caprellid family, Caprogammaridae, has developed abdominal segments with swimming appendages, whereas another family, Phtisicidae, possesses well-developed third and fourth pereopods. We conducted molecular phylogenetic analyses of caprellid families and ancestral state reconstruction. The analyses suggested that third and fourth pereopods in Phtisicidae and the abdomen in Caprogammaridae might be regained. The embryonic development of Caprella scaura was observed in order to understand the developmental and genetic mechanisms involved in the complicated morphological evolution of Caprellidea. In the embryonic development of C. scaura, distinct abdominal segments did not appear. In addition, elongation and segmentation of limb buds did not occur in the third and fourth pereonites (free thoracic segments), although the primordial gills appeared. These observations indicate that the telopods were not formed in the third and fourth pereonites. In order to confirm this hypothesis at the molecular level, gene expression analyses of Distal-less was performed and it was observed that Dll was not expressed in the third and fourth pereonites. This is the first molecular phylogenetic and developmental study focusing on the morphological evolution of Caprellidea.
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