Bonato, Lucio, et al. “Evolution of Strigamia Centipedes (Chilopoda): A First Molecular Assessment of Phylogeny and Divergence Times.” Zoologica Scripta, vol. 46, no. 4, July 2017, pp. 486–495. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/zsc.12234.
We have come to our final study on class Chilopoda. As we saw before, centipedes are creepy animals but they do have awesome characteristics that makeup how they fit into the world. Centipedes are one of the most widespread predators in the soil throughout the world. Lucio Bonato and his colleagues studied the developmental processes and the genetic control of the arthropod body of the species Strigamia maritima. This study also focused on exploiting both mitochondrial and nuclear genes. They presented the first molecular analysis of the phylogenetic relationships between Strigamia and encompassing most of its overall morphological and ecological variation. The authors’ hypothesis is to be able to create a phylogenic tree to understand the evolutionary and biogeographical history of the centipede species Strigamia.
In order to understand this article on centipedes, I will discuss with you some important terms used throughout the article. Bonato et al. are studying the body segments of centipedes. This includes the number of body segments, forcipules, and coxal organs. Forcipules are a modified pincer-like foreleg in centipedes, capable of injecting venom. The forcipules are the most important features located on the centipede because they use them for locomotion, protection, and to eat prey. Specimens of Strigamia were collected from the Northern Hemisphere field and their DNA was extracted. PCR method was used to then obtain good-quality DNA sequences. From the gene sequence collected, these scientists were able to make phylogenetic trees representing the genes taken from Strigamia maritim DNA samples. There are still so many unknown species of centipedes left to explore.
How do these findings apply to broader issues in science and/or the world? This experiment was the first to do a molecular assessment on Strigamia. Going into this blog, there was not too much information on centipedes. The most interesting thing I found was their forcipules. So these findings can open new doors about centipedes and it can offer new information. These findings can also encourage more people to study the centipedes.
How are these findings unique/new/unusual? I thought that this experiment and article focused on how important it is to go deeper into a species and find out more information. The class Chilopoda does not have that many animals to explore. The fact that these scientists were able to do the first molecular assessment on Strigamia is truly amazing. They were able to build more phylogenetic trees for the species and it is awesome how they contained samples from places all over the Northern Hemisphere.
References:
Bonato, Lucio, et al. “Evolution of Strigamia Centipedes (Chilopoda): A First Molecular Assessment of Phylogeny and Divergence Times.” Zoologica Scripta, vol. 46, no. 4, July 2017, pp. 486–495. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/zsc.12234.
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=6f28c5e3-8a01-4120-ae86-77bd85b6abd2%40sessionmgr4006
Very interesting article, I was not aware that a molecular assessment of centipedes had yet to be done. In the abstract of the article its mentioned that they collected both mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Do you know why these specific genes were chosen? Were these same genes, or variants of them, observed in propose related species? I would also be curious to know the sample size for each of the 16 species.
Hi! Thanks for commenting. If you are from my microbiology class, this blog post was from my animal biology class. If you want you can read about the microorganism algae!