| Abstract |
We describe 11 new species of Thaumatomonadida using light and electron microscopy and rDNA gene sequences (18S, ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2). We found clear distinctions between major clades in molecular and morphological traits that support now splitting Thaumatomastix into three genera: new marine genera Ovaloplaca (oval plate-scales) and Thaumatospina (triangular plate-scales), both with distinctive radially-symmetric bobbin-based spine-scales, restricting Thaumatomastix to freshwater species with putatively non-homologous eccentric-spine scales and thicker triangular plate-scales. New genus Scutellomonas lacks spine-scales, having oval plate-scales with deeply-dished upper tier as in Ovaloplaca, with which it forms a clade having short/absent anterior cilium. Cowlomonas gen. n. is possibly naked. We describe two new Allas species, two new Thaumatomonas, and one new Reckertia species, and transfer R. hindoni to Thaumatomonas. Triangular-scaled Reckertia has varied plate-scales and ciliary scales. Thaumatomonas rDNA trees reveal two clades: zhukovi/seravini (predominantly triangular scales); coloniensis/oxoniensis/lauterborni/constricta/solis (scales mostly oval). We hypothesise that the ancestor of Thaumatomonadidae had radially-symmetric bobbin-based spine-scales and triangular plate-scales, bobbin-based spine-scales being lost in one lineage and eccentric-spine scales evolving in Thaumatomastix. Bobbin-based spine-scales arguably evolved from triangular plate-scales and single-tier ciliary scales (Ovaloplaca and Reckertia only) from plate-scale rudiments. We present a unified scheme for scale evolution and development in Imbricatea.
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