Maricola is a suborder of

triclad Planarians (triclads) are free-living flatworms of the class Turbellaria, order Tricladida, which includes hundreds of species, found in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial habitats.pp 3., "Planarians (the popular name for the group as a whole ...

flatworm Platyhelminthes (from the Greek language, Greek πλατύ, ''platy'', meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), ''helminth-'', meaning "worm") is a Phylum (biology), phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, Segmentation (biology), ...

s including species that mainly inhabit salt water environments. However, some species are also known from freshwater or brackish waters.Ball, I. R. 1974. La Faune Terrestre de l'Ile de Saint Hélène: Turbellaria Tricladida. Ann. Mus. Roy. Afr. Centrale, in 8. Zool.

Taxonomy and phylogeny

History

The Maricola group was first proposed by Hallez in 1892. He recognized three

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

: Otoplanida, Procerodida and Bdellourida. Two years later, in 1884, Hallez renamed these families as Otoplanidae, Procerodidae and Bdellouridae. In 1906 Böhmig classified the Maricola in two families and five subfamilies: Procerodidae (Euprocerodinae, Cercyrinae, Micropharynginae) and Bdellouridae (Uteriporinae, Eubdellourinae). In 1909 Wilhelmi wrote a monograph on the group in which five families were described: Procerodidae, Uteriporidae, Cercyridae, Bdellouridae, Micropharyngidae. Von Graff used the same classification in 1916. In 1989

Sluys Sluis (; ; ) is a city and municipality located in the west of Zeelandic Flanders, in the south-western Dutch province of Zeeland. The current incarnation of the municipality has existed since 1 January 2003. The former municipalities of Oostbur ...

recognized the six present families on the basis of

phylogenetic analyses In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as Computational phylogenetics, phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organ ...

of the whole group.Sluys, R. A monograph of the marine triclads. Rotterdam and Brookfield: A.A. Balkema. XII + 463 p.

Classification

Taxonomical classification after Sluys ''et al.'' 2009: *Order

Tricladida Planarians (triclads) are free-living flatworms of the class Turbellaria, order Tricladida, which includes hundreds of species, found in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial habitats.pp 3., "Planarians (the popular name for the group as a whole ...

**Suborder Maricola ***Superfamily Cercyroidea ****Family Centrovarioplanidae ****Family Cercyridae ****Family Meixnerididae ***Superfamily

Bdellouroidea Maricola is a suborder of triclad flatworms including species that mainly inhabit salt water environments. However, some species are also known from freshwater or brackish waters.Ball, I. R. 1974. La Faune Terrestre de l'Ile de Saint Hélène: T ...

****Family Uteriporidae ****Family Bdellouridae ***Superfamily Procerodoidea ****Family Procerodidae ***Superfamily incerta sedis ****Genus '' Micropharynx'' ****Genus '' Tiddles''

Phylogeny

Phylogenetic supertree after Sluys et al., 2009:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3291418 Protostome suborders