Terrence M. Gosliner

• Ph. D. Zoology U.New Hampshire
• Senior Curator at California Academy of Sciences

Two new species of Doto (Heterobranchia: Dotidae) are described from the coast of California, Doto urak Gosliner & Adayapalam sp. nov. and Doto kwakwak Gosliner & Adayapalam sp. nov. These two species can be distinguished from their sympatric congeners by their color pattern, elaboration of the cerata and associated structures, their reproductive m...

The tropical Indo-Pacific aeolid nudibranchs of the Fionidae are poorly known and have not been studied in a concerted manner. Many undescribed species are found throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans and are concentrated in the Coral Triangle. With the recent publication of a revised systematic arrangement of the Fionidae, documentation and desc...

In the aftermath of the 2011 east Japanese earthquake and tsunami, anthropogenic debris from the east coast of Japan floated across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of North America. One such vessel from Iwate Prefecture arrived on the coast of Oregon, and the fouling community included specimens identified as the nudibranch Hermissenda crassico...

Goniodorididae H. Adams & A. Adams, 1854 is a family of small nudibranchs within the heterobranch mollusks. They are distributed throughout the world, and its large species richness makes it the most diverse family within superfamily Onchidoridoidea. Recently, several integrative taxonomic works have been focused on the study of Goniodorididae gene...

In this paper, a new genus in the nudibranch family Discodorididae, Avaldesia n. gen., is established for Avaldesia albomacula (Chan & Gosliner, 2007) and Avaldesia tahala (Chan & Gosliner, 2007), originally assigned to the genus Thordisa Bergh, 1877, and a new species, Avaldesia tamatoa n. sp., described here from the central Pacific. To establish...

ABSTRACT Goniodorididae is a family of small dorid nudibranchs distributed worldwide that feed on entoprocts, ascidians, and bryozoans. The evolutionary relationships between its taxa have been uncertain due to the limited taxa available for phylogenetic analyses; some genera being paraphyletic. The family includes a remarkable number of synonymize...

Goniodoridella Pruvot-Fol, 1933 is a genus of small nudibranchs found in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Currently, the genus includes only two described species, the widely distributed type species Goniodoridella savignyi Pruvot-Fol, 1933 and G. borealis Martynov, Sanamyan & Korshunova, 2015, which is found in the northern Sea of Japan. However, because o...

Color ontogeny and variations associated with discrete morphological differences may generate taxonomical challenges, which requires multiple data types and in-depth historical review. The nudibranch known as the Spanish dancer, Hexabranchus sanguineus , is a classic example with over 200 years of taxonomic confusion. Currently, H. sanguineus is ac...

The Indo-Pacific genus Halgerda Bergh, 1880a is one of the most diverse and better-studied genera within the nudibranch family Discodorididae. Previous studies have been predominantly based on morphology; however, the addition of molecular data has led to new species descriptions as well as unresolved species complexes. Here, we broaden the availab...

Goniodoris is the third most diverse genus of the nudibranch family Goniodorididae. The genus has undergone several taxonomic changes, with c. one-third of the recognized species of Goniodoris having been synonymized (most of these are junior synonyms of genera from other families). In addition, Goniodoris includes other synonymized genera within i...

The Gulf of Maine (GOM) has seen an increasing number of introduced species, some of which have significantly impacted benthic community structure. In 2017, a number of specimens of the European dorid nudibranch, Doris pseudoargus, were observed on rocky ledges in waters off Cape Ann, Massachusetts. The presence of numerous specimens and egg masses...

In a recent paper describing several new species Trapania Pruvot-Fol, 1931, a genus of dorid nudibranchs in the family Goniodorididae, one of the species named was published with two spellings of the species name. This error was introduced by copy editors after the authors had submitted the corrected proofs of the final version of the paper. Here w...

Trapania is a genus of dorid nudibranchs and one of the lesser studied members in the family Goniodorididae. Previous studies have been limited to using morphological data for producing phylogenies and establishing species relationships. This study presents the first molecular phylogeny for the genus Trapania with the goal of resolving questions th...

Trapania is the second largest genus belonging to the family Goniodorididae, of which most of the species are reported from Indo‐Pacific waters. To date, there are nine species of Trapania distributed along the temperate coasts of the East Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea: Trapania fusca, Trapania graeffei, Trapania hispalensis, Trapania lineat...

Sigurdson (1991) erected the monospecific genus Murphydoris to include the species Murphydoris singaporensis. This species differed from the rest of the genera in Goniodorididae by the lack of lamellae on the rhinophores and gill branches around the anus. Since its original description, Murphydoris singaporensis has only been found in Singapore and...

Sigurdson (1991) erected the monospecific genus Murphydoris to include the species Murphydoris singaporensis. This species differed from the rest of the genera in Goniodorididae by the lack of lamellae on the rhinophores and gill branches around the anus. Since its original description, Murphydoris singaporensis has only been found in Singapore and...

Nudibranchs are charismatic marine gastropods that lack a shell in the adult stage. While most nudibranchs feed on sessile animals such as sponges, bryozoans, and cnidarians, the nudibranch genus Gymnodoris Stimpson, 1855 evolved a more active and predatory lifestyle, including sea slug predation, cannibalism, and oddly enough, fish-fin parasitism....

Species identities of Goniobranchus nudibranchs with white bodies and various marginal bands have long been problematic. In this study, specimens of these Goniobranchus nudibranchs from the Philippines, Peninsular Malaysia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, and Madagascar were analyzed and molecular data were obtained in order to re-examine the relationship...

Detailed knowledge of the anatomy of the species is an essential element in taxonomic studies, since it allows the comparison and differentiation of separate groups of taxa. It becomes especially important when considering type species, as the subsequent identification of the species that compose the taxa is based on its characteristics, considered...

Numerous faunistic and ecological studies have been conducted throughout the Indo-Pacific Ocean to assess its biodiversity. Despite the abundance of research, studies on the species that inhabit the Indo-Pacific are still necessary due to its extent and high species richness. The major species richness of the genus Okenia Menke, 1830 (Nudibranchia,...

The genus Thuridilla Bergh, 1872 comprises mostly tropical sap‐sucking sea slugs species with flamboyantly coloured forms. However, the potential for cryptic or pseudocryptic species masked by convergent or polymorphic colour patterns has not been tested using molecular characters. In this study, we sampled 20 of the 23 recognized worldwide species...

The genus Micromelo (family Aplustridae) occurs in almost all tropical and subtropical waters across the globe, with the exception of the Eastern Pacific. Most authors consider Micromelo undatus (Bruguière, 1792) as the only valid species in this genus. This study examines populations of specimens identified as M. undatus across its geographic rang...

The Verde Island Passage of the Philippines is renowned for its rich marine biodiversity and heterobranch mollusks are demonstrable models of that species richness of the region. Chromodorid nudibranchs represent a particularly rich taxon, with species of Chromodoris being one of the most iconic and abundant taxa in shallow water coral reef environ...

The genus Orodoris Bergh, 1875 is a small genus that together with Miamira Bergh, 1875, was considered as a junior synonym of Ceratosoma A. Adams & Reeve, 1850. This decision was based on a morphological phylogenetic study conducted in 1999 that recovered the monophyly of the Ceratosoma. However, in 2012, molecular evidences led to the resurrection...

The genus Orodoris Bergh, 1875 is a small genus that together with Miamira Bergh, 1875, was considered as a junior synonym of Ceratosoma A. Adams & Reeve, 1850. This decision was based on a morphological phylogenetic study conducted in 1999 that recovered the monophyly of the Ceratosoma. However, in 2012, molecular evidences led to the resurrection...

Uncertainty surrounding the number and identity of species of genus Limacia O.F. Müller, 1781, in southern African and European coastal waters presents an ongoing conundrum. Limacia clavigera (O.F. Müller, 1776) was previously thought to be the only species of its genus in the eastern Atlantic, with a distribution covering north- to south-eastern A...

Lophodoris G. O. Sars, 1878 is a small genus of goniodoridid nudibranchs that includes only two species: the type species, Lophodoris danielsseni (Friele & Hansen, 1876), and Lophodoris scala Er. Marcus & Ev. Marcus, 1970. Sars (1878) erected Lophodoris in a footnote, without comment. Forty-four years later, Odhner (1922) finally described the type...

Nudibranchs in the family Discodorididae are generally medium (~30mm) to large (> 50mm) in size, sometimes cryptic, and are found in almost every marine ecosystem around the world. The diversity and systematics of the genera within Discodorididae are poorly understood and have led to numerous taxonomic changes. Hoplodoris Bergh, 1880 has recently b...

The North Pacific nudibranch species Triopha catalinae (Cooper, 1863), also known as the clown nudibranch, includes two distinct morphotypes: the trans-Pacific morphotype, known from South Korea to Southern California, and the eastern Pacific-only morphotype from Southeast Alaska to Baja California. We tested the hypothesis that Triopha catalinae i...

This paper describes four new Chromodoris species: Chromodoris balat sp. nov., Chromodoris baqe sp. nov., Chromodoris kalawakan sp. nov., and Chromodoris quagga sp. nov. We were able to distinguish 44 species level lineages within Chromodoris, expanding the Indo-Pacific species from 39 species. The phylogeny presented here provides slightly greater...

In the last several years, the family tree of Chromodorididae has been undergoing refinement due to molecular work, indicating new relationships between taxa. The genus Goniobranchus is one clade of the Chromodorididae and used to be included within Chromodoris. This genus was determined to be non-monophyletic and Goniobranchus was separated in ord...

Due to increases in ocean temperature, the overall biodiversity of coral reefs will continue to change, and key predators such as nudibranch sea slugs may be decimated by the lack of prey. One sponge-eating nudibranch family nicknamed the “Dirty Dorids”, also known as the Discodorididae, are generally medium to large cryptic nudibranchs with retrac...

The ragged sea hare (Bursatella leachii) and the long-tailed sea hare (Stylocheilus striatus) are two widely distributed species of benthic heterobranch sea slugs. In this paper, integrative taxonomic analyses have been conducted to detect possible cryptic diversity. Our results revealed that both nominal species are actually species complexes, con...

Berthella californica (W. H. Dall, 1900) is a widespread species of heterobranch sea slug distributed across the North Pacific Ocean, from Korea and Japan to the Galapagos Islands. Two distinct morphotypes are observed in B. californica, which differ in external coloration, egg-mass morphology and geographic distribution (with the exception of a sm...

Molecular and morphological evidence support the view that the widely distributed species Berthella stellata (Risso, 1826) is a species complex of at least eight different species. The closely related species Berthella plumula (Montagu, 1803), examined for comparison, is also a complex of two species; the name B. plumula is retained for the Atlanti...

Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems of the world, yet little is known about the processes creating and maintaining their diversity. Ecologically, corallivory in nudibranchs resembles phytophagy in insects- a process that for decades has served as a model for ecological speciation via host shifting. This study uses extensi...

The widespread sea hare species Aplysia parvula includes four genetically distinct lineages, containing a total of ten different species. While the four lineages can be differentiated by their external characteristics, species in each clade are often morphologically indistinguishable. A review of literature and type material revealed that several a...

The “most famous” nudibranch of the world – the “Spanish dancer” Hexabranchus sanguineus (Rüppell & Leuckart, 1830) – has a confusing taxonomic history with around 27 synonym names. The most dramatic rearrangement considered that all morphs of Hexabranchus spp. from the Indo-West Pacific Ocean (IWP) belonged to the same species, synonymizing 20 nom...

In the last several years, the family tree of Chromodorididae has been undergoing refinement due to molecular work, indicating new relationships between taxa. The genus Goniobranchus is one clade of the Chromodorididae and used to be included within Chromodoris. This genus was determined to be non-monophyletic and Goniobranchus was separated out. M...

Due to increases in ocean temperature, the overall biodiversity of coral reefs will continue to change, and key predators such as nudibranch sea slugs may be decimated by the lack of prey. One sponge-eating nudibranch family nicknamed the “Dirty Dorids”, also known as the Discodorididae, are generally small cryptic nudibranchs with retractable gill...

The widespread sea hare species Aplysia parvula includes four genetically distinct lineages, containing a total of ten different species. While the four lineages can be differentiated by their external characteristics, species in each clade are often morphologically indistinguishable. A review of literature and type material revealed that several a...

Proctonotidae and Madrellidae are families that belong to the suborder Cladobranchia. Historically, both have been the subjects of taxonomic confusion. Thus, Proctonotidae Gray, 1853, was subsequently named as Zephyrinidae Iredale and O'Donoghue, 1923 and Janolidae Pruvot‐Fol, 1933, but currently both are considered as synonyms of Proctonotidae. On...

Phanerophthalmus is a genus of Indo-West Pacific sea slugs inhabiting seagrass and coral reefs with up to now seven species currently recognised as valid. The goals of this study are to revise the systematics of Phanerophthalmus, infer its phylogeny and patterns of diversity, as well as study its diet. Morphology was combined with molecular phyloge...

The strong 2015-16 El Niño comprised the second part of the unprecedented 2014-17 marine heat wave in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. From late 2015 through 2017 we sampled mostly intertidal sites from La Paz, Baja California Sur to northern Oregon for benthic heterobranch sea slugs outside of their normal ranges. Combined with records obtained from c...

“Cryptic” can refer to species that match their background through camouflage or disruptive colouration, or in taxonomy to externally similar but unrecognized congeners. In adaptive resemblance, organisms resemble parts of a larger host animal or plant on which the mimic is highly cryptic. Mimetic lineages that radiate onto superficially similar ho...

A molecular phylogeny is presented for 48 species of the genus Hypselodoris (Family: Chromodorididae), which incorporated 64 newly sequenced specimens. Hypselodoris is monophyletic and divided into clades that exhibit varying support. Novel diversity was found, with the distinctness of 17 new species of Hypselodoris supported by the molecular phylo...

Molecular and morphological data from newly collected specimens and a review of the literature and type material indicate that the widespread tropical sea hare Dolabrifera dolabrifera is a species complex of five genetically distinct taxa. The name Dolabrifera dolabrifera is retained for a widespread species in the Indo-Pacific tropics. Dolabrifera...

Polybranchia Pease, 1860 is a tropical and subtropical genus of sacoglossan heterobranch sea slugs. Eight nominal species of Polybranchia have been described; however, the taxonomic status of most species is uncertain. Here, we present an integrative assessment of species diversity in Polybranchia. Two methods of molecular species delimitation supp...

Advances in molecular systematics have led to a rapid increase in the identification of cryptic and pseudocryptic species in organisms exhibiting diverse and complex coloration with complicated taxonomic histories. A recent molecular phylogenetic analysis of nudibranchs in the genus Glossodoris (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Chromodorididae...

In the last several years, the family tree of Chromodorididae has been undergoing refinement due to molecular work, indicating new relationships between taxa. The genus Goniobranchus is one clade of the Chromodorididae and used to be included within Chromodoris. Chromodoris was determined to be non-monophyletic and Goniobranchus was separated out....

Chromodoris is a genus of colourful nudibranchs that feed on sponges and is found across the Indo-Pacific. While this was once the most diverse chromodorid genus, recent work has shown that the genus should be restricted to a monophyletic lineage that contains only 22 species, all of which exhibit black pigmentation and planar spawning behaviour. E...

Molecular and morphological data from newly collected specimens and a review of the literature and type material indicate that the widespread tropical sea hare Dolabrifera dolabrifera is a species complex of five genetically distinct taxa. The name Dolabrifera dolabrifera is retained for a widespread species in the Indo-Pacific tropics. Dolabrifera...

Molecular estimates of phylogenetic relationships rely heavily on multiple sequence alignment construction. There has been little consensus, however, on how to properly address issues pertaining to the alignment of variable regions. Here, we construct alignments from four commonly sequenced molecular markers (16S, 18S, 28S and cytochrome c oxidase...

Bulbaeolidia Carmona, Pola, Gosliner & Cervera, 2013 is the most recently described genus within the family Aeolidiidae Gray, 1827. It is composed of four species: B. alba (Risbec, 1928), originally described from New Caledonia; B. japonica (Eliot, 1913), from Japan; B. sulphurea Caballer & Ortea, 2015, from the Galapagos Islands and B. oasis Cabal...

A molecular phylogeny is presented for 25 newly sequenced specimens of Gastropteridae. The present phylogeny was estimated by analysing the nuclear fragment 28S and two mitochondrial fragments cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) and 16S using maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses. The distinctness of eight new species of Gastropteridae is supported by...

Chromodorid nudibranchs (Chromodorididae) are brightly coloured sea slugs that live in some of the most biodiverse and threatened coral reefs on the planet. However, the evolutionary relationships within this family have not been well understood, especially in the genus Glossodoris. Members of Glossodoris have experienced large-scale taxonomic inst...

A new species of Parvaplustrum from the northeastern Pacific, recognized in the literature as undescrihed, is formally named herein. This new species is morphologically distinct from the two other species in the genus, Parvnphistnnn tenenim and P. japonicum, and distinguishable by its shell sculpture. The new species is found from Oregon to Baja Ca...

Tergipedidae represents a diverse and successful group of aeolid nudibranchs, with approximately 200 species distributed throughout most marine ecosystems and spanning all bio-geographical regions of the oceans. However, the systematics of this family remains poorly understood since no modern phylogenetic study has been undertaken to support any of...

ABGD analyses for the putative species complex. Trees were extracted from Fig 1. Rectangles represent the groups found by ABGD. (A) “Eubranchus rupium”. (B) “Cuthona yamasui”. (C) Cuthona pustulata and Cuthona punicea. (D) Cuthona concinna, Cuthonella marisalbi, Cuthonella soboli and Cuthona cocoachroma. Abbreviations: JC, Jukes-Cantor; K, Kimura;...

Molecular phylogeny inferred from partial sequences of the individual genes by Bayesian analysis. (A) H3. (B) COI. (C) 16S (C). Numbers above branches represent posterior probabilities from BI. Numbers below branches indicate bootstrap values for ML. Only nodes supported by BS ≥ 70 and PP ≥ 0.95 are represented. (TIF)

Molecular phylogeny based on both ML (A) and Bayesian (B) PTP analyses. (TIF)

Extraction, amplification, purification and sequencing protocols followed by each author. (DOCX)

List of specimens used for phylogenetic analyses. We include both the species names resulting from our morpho-chromatic identification (provisional ids) and the names after analyses (final ids; this only when changes have occurred). Abbreviation: GB, Genbank. (DOCX)

Molecular phylogeny based on the combined dataset (H3+COI+16S) including Tergipes antarcticus. (A) Tree topology from Maximum likelihood analysis; number above branches indicate the bootstrap values. (B) Tree topology from Bayesian inference; numbers above branches represent posterior probabilities. Only nodes supported by BS ≥ 70 and PP ≥ 0.95 are...

Based on morphological data a total of nine native species of Philinidae are recognized from the northeastern Pacific in-cluding the Bering Sea and the adjacent Arctic Ocean (Beaufort Sea). Four of them have been previously described: Phi-line ornatissima Yokoyama, 1927, Philine bakeri Dall, 1919, Philine polystrigma (Dall, 1908), and Philine hemph...

Aeolidia papillosa (Linnaeus, 1761) is a well-known aeolidiid species that has been reported to have a worldwide distribution in cold–temperate waters, mainly from the northern hemisphere. Molecular tools have recently shown that most cosmopolitan species usually belong to a taxonomic species complex. Here we used integrative taxonomy to test the r...

Recent studies investigating vicariance and dispersal have been focused on correlating major geological events with instances of taxonomic expansion by incorporating the fossil record with molecular clock analyses. However, this approach becomes problematic for soft-bodied organisms that are poorly represented in the fossil record. Here, we estimat...

Nudibranch species found in our intertidal study area at Duxbury Reef, Marin County, California. Data are presented as (1) number of individuals of each species found on each date, and (2) number of individuals of each species found per hour per observer on each date.

This dataset contains the abundance data from our full three years of our resampling these study sites, as well as the historical data. Data, in three sheets, one per site, are presented as number of individuals per hour per observer. A few of the species names have been updated based on taxonomic work as of Aug 2015. The analysis in Schultz et al....

In recent years, several morphological and molecular analyses have been undertaken to study the phylogenetic systematics of Aeolidiidae members. The monospecific genus Burnaia could not be included in the previous analysis, due to the lack of material. This study includes two specimens of Burnaia helicochorda from Australia and places them in their...

Tritoniid sea slugs are specialised predators that feed on a variety of octocorals, including soft corals, gorgonians and sea pens. Trivettea papalotla is a recently described species found in Baja California and mainland Mexico that is unusual in its morphology and feeding behaviour. It is the first tritoniid nudibranch known to feed on zoanthid a...

The nudibranch family Dotidae has been an extremely challenging group to study taxonomically due to their small body size, lack of distinct internal morphological differences and similar color patterns. This integrative systematic study of the Dotidae encompasses 29 individuals from the north Atlantic and Mediterranean, and 11 from the Indo-Pacific...

Protaeolidiella atra Baba, 1955 and Pleurolidia juliae Burn, 1966 are two species traditionally regarded as the members of Aeolidiidae but recently attributed to Facelinidae. Because of their apparent similarities, Rudman (J Molluscan Stud 56:505–514, 1990) rendered P. juliae as a junior synonym of P. atra. In this paper, we conducted a review of b...

Species of Pleurobranchus (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Nudipleura: Pleurobranchidae) are commonly found worldwide, but there is a substantial amount of confusion regarding the ranges and identification of individual species. Difficulties in phylogenetic reconstruction and identification of pleurobranchids using morphological traits has re...

A new species of the genus Doto is described from the Cape Peninsula of the Western Cape Province, South Africa. To date, the genus Doto is probably one of the more complex and poorly defined genera within nudibranchs. The very small body size and very similar external and internal features make this genus problematic and, therefore, poorly studied...

Three new species of aglajid opisthobranchs are described from the Verde Island Passage of the Philippines. Philinopsis buntot sp. nov. is found from two localities in Batangas, Luzon. It is immediately recognizable and distinct from all other aglajids by its medial projection that extends from the posterior end of the posterior shield. Its penis h...

Species of Pleurobranchus (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Nudipleura: Pleurobranchidae) are commonly found worldwide, but there is a substantial amount of confusion regarding the ranges and identification of individual species. Difficulties in phylogenetic reconstruction and identification of pleurobranchids using morphological traits has re...

Tritoniidae (Mollusca: Nudibranchia) is a family of sea slugs known to feed on octocorals, including soft corals, gorgonians, and sea pens. The evolutionary relationships of the family have a murky history due to the lack of a fossil record. However, stomach plates are deemed to have high systematic value and have been used as one of the diagnostic...

The aeolid genus Berghia was described by Trinchese in 1877, with Berghia coerulescens (Laurillard, 1832) as type species. The validity of Berghia has been questioned by some authors, who have considered it a junior synonym of Spurilla Bergh, 1864. The lack of consensus has caused confusion, blurring the differences between these two genera. A rece...

The facelinid genus Phyllodesmium (Ehrenberg, 1831) consists of approximately 24 described species that prey upon soft-bodied corals. At least five additional species have yet to be described, making it an interesting genus for testing phylogenetic hypotheses. The genus is extremely morphologically diverse, with many species adapting specifically t...

Nembrothinae is a colourful subfamily of nudibranch polycerids, which despite its large size and striking appearance, needs to be more thoroughly studied. The available scientific information about this subfamily is very recent, and pictures of living undescribed species become available every day. Nevertheless, the lack of associated material for...

The aeolid genus Berghia was described by Trinchese in 1877, with Berghia coerulescens (Laurillard, 1832) as type species. The validity of Berghia has been questioned by some authors, who have considered it a junior synonym of Spurilla Bergh, 1864. The lack of consensus has caused confusion, blurring the differences between these two genera. A rece...

This paper discusses the systematics of the aeolid genus Baeolidia Bergh, 1888. To date, this monophyletic genus is the most diverse within Aeolidiidae with sixteen valid species. Excluding Baeolidia cryoporos Bouchet, 1977, the genus is restricted to the Indo-Pacific and Eastern Pacific. Species of Baeolidia show a huge intrageneric variability in...