The fetal germ cells were identified based on morphology and position within the seminiferous cords.
Terrestrial genera Trischistoma and Tripylina were also recovered within the Enoplida, despite their historical placement within the Dorylaimia based on morphology [ 16, 18] or within the Triplonchida according to molecular evidence [ 8, 21, 23].
Based on morphology, these animals clustered within a group also containing Alentejana, Garvonesa and Mertolenga animals [ 27].
This work strongly supports the monophyly of most of the previously classified groups within the family based on morphology, and most of the morphological characters discussed herein correspond well with our molecular-based phylogenies.
One diaphana group individual (based on morphology and mtDNA) was recovered within the PEPCK hybrida lineage.
Traditional placement of Enhydris plumbea within Colubridae based on morphology was not retrieved by our analyses.
While some putative relationships have been postulated for higher-level relationships within Gracillarioidea based on morphology (e.g. [ 24, 27], the trees presented in these studies were based on phenetic similarity rather than discrete character analysis.
In all trees, conspecific sequences of Gentianopsis crinita, Gentianopsis thermalis, Gentiana algida, and Gentiana fremontii, consistently clustered together, in line with our understanding of species limits within these taxa based on morphology, geography, and other genetic markers.
The genus Campydora was historically classified within the Dorylaimia based on morphology [ 15, 36, 38]; only Siddiqi [ 19] was the only author to suggest a relationship with the Enoplia based on the structure of the pharynx and amphids.
In an early phylogenetic study based on morphology, Dahlgren and Rasmussen (1983) placed the family within Alismatales (as the sister group of the core alismatid families).
