Tardigrades are an important component of the Antarctic fauna, where they are extremely abundant and biodiverse. DNA methods have been used to study Antarctic tardigrades, however, often the morphological and taxonomy part have been neglected.
In a recent paper published in Polar Biology, Matteo Vecchi and co-authors described a newly found population of the tardigrade Mesobiotus aradasi and by sequencing it, they found that previously unclassified DNA sequenced from all along the Antarctic peninsula belong to this species.
The study shows how important is the integration of modern molecular techniques with traditional morphological approaches to have a clear understanding of the biodiversity of our planet.
You can check out the full paper, here.
Photo: Matteo Vecchi. Mesobiotus aradasi photographed under a phase contrast microscope.