Ana Glavinic, School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University

	School of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science & Engineering

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Ms Ana Glavinic

Contact Details

Phone:	+61 8 8201 2267
Fax:	+61 8 8201 3015
Email:	ana.glavinic@flinders.edu.au
Location:	Room 026, Biological Sciences building (building 51)

Teaching

Biology 1A (BIOL1101)

Research

Evolution of Neotrigonia (Bivalvia:Trigonioida)

The major aim of my research is to resolve phylogeny, phylogeography and determine the number of extant species of the group Neotrigonia.

Neotrigonia is the sole surviving genus of the Trigoniidae, prominent during the Mesozoic, but only survived by a few species today in the southern ocean, occupying coastal waters of Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

The representatives of the single extant genus Neotrigonia have a mixture of seemingly primitive features such as filibranchous gills possessing ciliary-linked gill filaments, lack of posterior mantle fusion and nacreous shells, with derived features, such as a multi-vesicular sperm acrosome. The combination of primitive and derived character states has contributed to the development of multiple hypotheses of trigonioid evolutionary affinities.

Resolving the phylogenetic position of trigonioids is essential for understanding higher level bivalve relationships. Molecular systematic analyses have been useful in situations where morphological analysis were inconclusive, therefore the molecular analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear genes coupled with morphological analyses of extant and fossil representatives, which has never been done before, will be utilised to construct a phylogenetic hypothesis for the positions of Neotrigonia and the major groups of bivalves. Further more the research will result in more information about general biology, ontology and behavioural patterns of the genus.

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