Fanny Leubner

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen | GAUG · Animal Evolution and Biodiversity

With approximately 3000 marine species, Tunicata represents the most disparate subtaxon of Chordata. Molecular phylogenetic studies support Tunicata as sister taxon to Craniota, rendering it pivotal to understanding craniate evolution. Although successively more molecular data have become available to resolve internal tunicate phylogenetic relation...

Cladistics Cover image: Tunicates comprise roughly 3000 species, most of which are sessile ascidians. In the fi rst cladistic analysis of morphological characters for Tunicata, Braun et al. show that these phenotypic characters by themselves support-concordant with molecular phylogenies-the planktonic appendicularians as sister group to the remaini...

With approximately 3000 marine species, Tunicata represents the most disparate subtaxon of Chordata. Molecular phylogenetic studies support Tunicata as sister taxon to Craniota, rendering it pivotal to understanding craniate evolution. Although successively more molecular data have become available to resolve internal tunicate phylogenetic relation...

Orthoptera, or Saltatoria, represents the most diverse insect group among the lower neopterans or Polyneoptera. The present study provides a detailed comparative investigation of the skeletal and muscular thoracic morphology of 23 orthopteran species. For the first time, we investigate unstudied ensiferan key taxa including Gryllacrididae (raspy cr...

The present thesis provides (1) a detailed study of the yet neglected skeletomuscular complex of the thorax in Orthoptera, (2) a comparative study of the morphological modifications associated with secondary winglessness in polyneopteran lineages and Ensifera in particular, (3) a phylogenetic reconstruction of ensiferan relationships based on chara...

Schizodactylidae, splay-footed or dune crickets, represents a distinct lineage among the highly diverse orthopteran subgroup Ensifera (crickets, katydids and allies). Only two extant genera belong to the Schizodactylidae: the winged Eurasian genus Schizodactylus, whose ecology and morphology is well documented, and the wingless South African Comicu...

Background Secondary winglessness is a common phenomenon found among neopteran insects. With an estimated age of at least 140 million years, the cave crickets (Rhaphidophoridae) form the oldest exclusively wingless lineage within the long-horned grasshoppers (Ensifera). With respect to their morphology, cave crickets are generally considered to rep...

The eggs of stick and leaf insects (Phasmatodea) bear strong resemblance to plant seeds and are commonly dispersed by females dropping them to the litter. Here we report a novel egg-deposition mode for Phasmatodea performed by an undescribed Vietnamese species of the enigmatic subfamily Korinninae that produces a complex egg case (ootheca), contain...

Ensiferans (crickets and katydids) form an extremely diverse and species-rich lineage among the “Lower Neoptera” or Polyneoptera. Numerous studies based on morphological and molecular data have led to largely incongruent results, and the phylogenetic relationships within the Ensifera still remain unresolved. For instance, the phylogenetic affinitie...