The Crustacea are a large and morphologically diverse group of freshwater and marine animals whose evolutionary relationships are controversial. Dr. Larry Abele at Florida State University and colleagues are employing modern molecular analyses of DNA to obtain nucleotide sequence data from representative samples of many groups of barnacles, crabs, copepods, shrimps, and others. They can thus acquire comparable, homologous characters for the reconstruction of phylogenetic branching patterns among these various crustacean lineages. In turn such knowledge will permit testing of ideas about morphological diversification in these animals, geographic distribution, and ecological specialization.
