Dendrodorididae is a
taxonomic family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of
sea slug
Sea slug is a common name for some marine invertebrates with varying levels of resemblance to terrestrial slugs. Most creatures known as sea slugs are gastropods, i.e. they are sea snails (marine gastropod mollusks) that over evolutionary time ...
s, dorid
nudibranch
Nudibranchs () are a group of soft-bodied marine gastropod molluscs which shed their shells after their larval stage. They are noted for their often extraordinary colours and striking forms, and they have been given colourful nicknames to match, ...
s,
marine gastropod molluscs in the
Superfamily Phyllidioidea
Phyllidioidea is a taxonomic superfamily of colorful sea slugs, dorid nudibranchs, marine gastropod mollusks.
Taxonomy
*Family Phyllidiidae Rafinesque, 1814
*Family Dendrodorididae O'Donoghue, 1924
*Family Mandeliidae
Mandela's nudibranch, ...
.
Genera
A
maximum-parsimony analysis of the
nucleotide sequence
A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases signified by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. By convention, sequences are usu ...
of the 16S mtDNA
gene
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...
, performed in 2003, has shown that the family Dendrodoridae is
paraphyletic.
Genera in the family Dendrodorididae presently include:
* ''
Dendrodoris''
Ehrenberg, 1831
* ''
Doriopsilla''
Bergh, 1880
References
*
*
Powell A. W. B., ''New Zealand Mollusca'',
William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979
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