Putting placozoans on the (phylogeographic) map

Abstract

[Extract] The Phylum Placozoa, once considered monotypic, turns out to be surprisingly diverse despite the morphological simplicity and apparent uniformity of these small and often overlooked animals. A paper by Eitel & Schierwater (2010) in this issue of Molecular Ecology, based on a world-wide collecting program, greatly increases our knowledge of the distribution of specific placozoan haplotypes, more than doubles the number of genetically characterized sites, and reports the first genetic data for isolates from the Eastern Atlantic and Indian Ocean. This paper is also important in that it marks an early attempt to map haplotypes with different kinds of distribution patterns.