The phylogenetic placement of the phylum Tardigrada among the Metazoa is somewhat uncertain. In analyses based on morphological characters, tardigrades are usually associated with arthropods but tardigrades have also been associated with a number of aschelminth phyla. We have sequenced the nearly complete 18S rRNA gene from a eutardigrade. Neighbor-Joining and Maximum-Parsimony analyses place tardigrades in a clade that includes arthropods and priapulids, but not other aschelminths.

Gobiidae is one of the largest families of teleost fishes with nearly 2000 species currently recognized. They have a worldwide distribution with exception of Arctic and Antarctic areas, inhabiting marine, brackish and freshwaters. Mostly, they are small-sized and live inconspicuously on the bottom. Their phylogeny has been studied only partially. In Europe, three independent lineages of gobies exist (Gobius-, Aphia- and Pomatoschistus-lineage), most of the species of these lineages are marine. In this work, I performed a multilocus study of the Gobius-lineage encompassing the majority of the species. Mitochondrial (cytochrome b and cytochrome c oxidase I) as well as nuclear (rhodopsin and recombination activating gene) markers were used. 480 individuals of 30 species were analyzed in the laboratory and sequences of further 25 - 32 species were downloaded from the Genbank and added to a dataset of each marker according to availability. Mitochondrial markers were more informative than the nuclear ones. The usefulness of cytochrome c oxidase I for studying phylogenetic relationships of gobies was compared with cytochrome b. Cytochrome c oxidase I showed to be useful for identification of the species, but has some limitations in resolving deeper phylogenetic relationships in gobies. Cytochrome b showed...

Evolutionary relationships between Barbus species have been already studied in the past, but most of the studies were based only on mitochondrial DNA, there is no detailed study based on nuclear markers. This is mainly due to the fact that Barbus species are tetraploid. The western part of Greece has been studied insufficiently, and moreover a greater diversity of freshwater ichthyofauna is expected here. Greece is one of the hotspots of biodiversity. Greek river system is characterized by a significant proportion of endemic species of freshwater fishes. In this work evolutionary relationships between Barbus species were studied, with focus on diversity of Greek lineages. The geographical distribution of Barbus species has been also revised. In total, 192 individuals were analyzed, 156 individuals were from 40 Greek localities and another 36 Barbus species were from other areas of distribution of the genus. Dataset was supplemented with avaible published sequences. For the phylogenetic analysis mitochondrial gene cytochrom b, 1st intron of ribosomal protein gene S7 and 2nd intron of gene beta-actin were used. For both nuclear markers paralog-specific primers were used. The analysis of cytochrom b revealed several well-supported lines: 1. species of southwestern Mediterranean (B. meridionalis and B....