Elena N Temereva

SCIENTIFIC AREA:

• Comparative anatomy, embryology, and ultrastructure of invertebrates

• Comprehensive study of invertebrates by methods of light microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy, tomography, electron microscopy, and molecular phylogeny

• The evolution of Lophophorata: from the Cambrian to date

• Three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of invertebrate organ systems

• Organization and development of tentacles in invertebrates at tissue and cellular levels

• Taxonomy and diversity of marine invertebrates

Some important scientific results (see the publication list below):

The morphology and development of tentacle apparatuses have been studied in invertebrates from several large groups of Bilateria: Annelida (Oweniidae, Siboglinidae), Phoronida, Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Kamptozoa. Accordingly to obtained results, the monophyly of Lophophorata has been rebuilt (Temereva, Kosevich, 2016, 2017, 2018; Temereva, 2017, 2019a,b, 2020) and the monophyly of Polyzoa (Bryozoa + Kamptozoa) has been rejected (Borisanova et al., 2019). Thus, data on comparative analysis allowed to clarify the Bilateria phylogeny.

Novel data on the organization of lophophore in phoronids, bryozoans, and brachiopods have allowed to suggest a hypothesis about the evolution of the Lophophorata in general and the lophophore in particular (Kuzmina, Temereva, 2019; Temereva, 2019a, b, 2020a).

Cellular studies of the brachiopod nervous system revealed that brachiopods lack true ganglia (Kuzmina, Temereva, 2021). Moreover, their ganglia are neuroepithelium, i.e. brachiopods exhibit the initial step of the nervous system differentiation.

Four new species of phoronids have been discovered (Temereva, Malakhov, 1999; Temereva, 2000; Temereva et al., 2016a, b, 2017, 2018, 2020a; Temereva, Chichvarkhin, 2017; Temereva, Neklyudov, 2018). New phoronid larvae are described from South-China Sea; the larvae of Phoronis australis are described for the first time (Temereva, 2016a, b). Molecular phylogenetic analysis evidences the presence of more phoronid species than it is traditionally regarded.

New reproductive strategy, which is unique for invertebrates, has been discovered for the first time in new phoronid species – Phoronis embryolabi (Temereva, Malakhov, 2018).

Analysis of microstructure of shell in recent brachiopods allowed to reconstruct the life cycles of numerous extinct brachiopods (Madison et al., 2021).