Abstract:

Marine biological systematics provides taxonomic information and expertise for biodiversity monitoring and conservation. The systematic placement of the vast majority of taxa still relies on taxonomic opinions or proposals based on phenotypic morphology. Molecular phylogenetics sometimes is inconsistent with morphological data, notably within the phylum Cnidaria. An integrative approach to two cases of incongruence in hydrozoans results in improved systematics with the designation of two new generaand one new species with divergent origin. This suggests that incongruence in molecular and morphological inferences may be of great systematic significance.