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The Opisthobranchia are known as beautiful seaslugs, having evolved from shell bearing Prosobranchia. About 5000 to 6000 species are known worldwide. They live in all kind of habitats, from the intertidal to the deep sea, from the polarregions to the tropical reefs. Some species do not exceed a length of 5 mm, the largest can grow up to one meter. Many of them are specialists on certain food species. Some groups have specialized on algae, others on poriferans or corals. Some taxa are rather rapacious and a few even prefer to prey on congeners.
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The Opisthobranchia are quite famous for many unique biological phenomena, as there are the defensive strategies by using highly toxic chemicals from their food, or by incorporating the stinging cells of cnidarian prey and using them against possible predators. Some of the opisthobranchs are so toxic, that they are mimicked by other invertebrates.
Another unique character for a certain group is the possibility to incorporate chloroplasts from their algal food and to use these as metabolite suppliers, therefore acting like plants. Less spectacular, but nevertheless very interesting is the symbiotic relationship of certain groups with unicellular algae from corals.
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The major aim of our projects is the understanding of evolution of the Opisthobranchia. First step is the reconstruction of the phylogenetic relationship of the Opisthobranchia with all major taxa: Acochlidiacea, Cephalaspidea s.l., Anaspidea, Thecosomata, Gymnosomata, Sacoglossa, Tylodinoidea, Pleurobranchoidea und Nudibranchia. The methods we use are morphological and histological investigations, supported by ultrastructural analyses, as well as molecular systematics.
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