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The endangered Galápagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki) inhabits the Galápagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. We present a complete mitochondrial genome (16 465 bp) of a female paratype from the collections of the Natural History Museum Oslo, Norway, assembled from next-generation sequencing reads. It contains all canonical protein-coding, rRNA, tRNA genes, and the D-loop region. Sequence similarity is 99.93% to a previously published conspecific mitogenome sequence and 99.37% to the mitogenome sequence of the sister species Z. californianus. Sequence similarity of the D-loop region of the Z. wollebaeki paratype mitogenome is >99%, while the sequence difference to the Z. californianus sequences exceeds 2.5%. The paratype mitogenome sequence supports the taxonomic status of Z. wollebaeki as a separate species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gracilaria mammillaris has been the most common flattened Gracilaria reported from North Carolina offshore waters. Analyses of rbcL sequences from North Carolina specimens identified as G. mammillaris revealed that they were actually Gracilaria galatensis, Gracilaria hayi, Gracilaria isabellana, and Gracilaria occidentalis. Comparisons of contemporary Gracilaria rbcL sequences with a partial sequence from the G. mammillaris holotype indicated that G. mammillaris is most likely not present in North Carolina. Specimens from Venezuela and Brazil originally identified as Gracilaria curtissiae are G. mammillaris, and the currently designated G. mammillaris epitype represents a unique species described here as Gracilaria gurgelii sp. nov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of Cladophora species is challenging due to conservation of gross morphology, few discrete autapomorphies, and environmental influences on morphology. Twelve species of marine Cladophora were reported from North Carolina waters. Cladophora specimens were collected from inshore and offshore marine waters for DNA sequence and morphological analyses. The nuclearencoded rRNA internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS) were sequenced for 105 specimens and used in molecular assisted identification. The ITS1 and ITS2 region was highly variable, and sequences were sorted into ITS Sets of Alignable Sequences (SASs). Sequencing of short hyper-variable ITS1 sections from Cladophora type specimens was used to positively identify species represented by SASs when the types were made available. Secondary structures for the ITS1 locus were also predicted for each specimen and compared to predicted structures from Cladophora sequences available in GenBank. Nine ITS SASs were identified and representative specimens chosen for phylogenetic analyses of 18S and 28S rRNA gene sequences to reveal relationships with other Cladophora species. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that marine Cladophorales were polyphyletic and separated into two clades, the Cladophora clade and the "Siphonocladales" clade. Morphological analyses were performed to assess the consistency of character states within species, and complement the DNA sequence analyses. These analyses revealed intra- and interspecific character state variation, and that combined molecular and morphological analyses were required for the identification of species. One new report, Cladophora dotyana, and one new species Cladophora subtilissima sp. nov., were revealed, and increased the biodiversity of North Carolina marine Cladophora to 14 species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endangered Galápagos sea lion ( Zalophuswollebaeki ) inhabits the Galápagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. We present a complete mitochondrial genome (16 465 bp) of a female paratype from the collections of the Natural History Museum Oslo, Norway, assembled from next-generation sequencing reads. It contains all canonical protein-coding, rRNA, tRNA genes, and the D-loop region. Sequence similarity is 99.93% to a previously published conspecific mitogenome sequence and 99.37% to the mitogenome sequence of the sister species Z.californianus . Sequence similarity of the D-loop region of the Z.wollebaeki paratype mitogenome is >99%, while the sequence difference to the Z.californianus sequences exceeds 2.5%. The paratype mitogenome sequence supports the taxonomic status of Z.wollebaeki as a separate species., Competing Interests: No conflict of interest was declared., (Rita M. Austin, Pia Merete Eriksen, Lutz Bachmann.)