↓ Skip to main content

The male sexual apparatus in the order Scorpiones (Arachnida): a comparative study of functional morphology as a tool to define hypotheses of homology

Overview of attention for article published in Frontiers in Zoology, November 2017
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (51st percentile)

Mentioned by

twitter
5 X users

Citations

dimensions_citation
23 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
37 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
The male sexual apparatus in the order Scorpiones (Arachnida): a comparative study of functional morphology as a tool to define hypotheses of homology
Published in
Frontiers in Zoology, November 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12983-017-0231-z
Pubmed ID
Authors

Lionel Monod, Lucie Cauwet, Edmundo González-Santillán, Siegfried Huber

Abstract

Insemination in scorpions is carried out by means of a partly sclerotized structure, the spermatophore, which is composed of two separate halves, the hemispermatophores. In most genera these reproductive structures can be used to differentiate species. However, many taxa such as the genus Euscorpius and the family Diplocentridae lack the morphological diversity observed in the copulatory organs of many other arthropods, rendering them useless for species level taxonomy. Such structural stasis, however, suggests that hemispermatophores have evolved relatively slowly and may thus provide a stronger phylogenetic signal for recognizing supra-generic ranks than previously thought. Based on the postulate that the phenotypic stability observed in some groups is the consequence of functional constraint, the most comprehensive comparative study of the male sexual apparatus to date was conducted for a complete reassessment of the morphology, phylogenetic value and hypotheses of homology of these structures. Hemispermatophores, pre- and post-insemination spermatophores, as well as the inherent mechanisms of insemination, were studied across the whole order, allowing the recognition and description of a series of five basic bauplans for the capsular region. For the most part, these patterns appear to be consistent within each major taxonomic group, but several cases of incongruence between spermatophore morphology and taxonomy raises questions about the monophyly of some clades. The Bothriuridae are traditionally regarded as a basal scorpionoid family. However, except for the genus Lisposoma, bothriurid hemispermatophores and spermatophores are morphologically more similar to those of the Chactoidea than to those of scorpionoids. On the other hand, the male copulatory structures of the hormurid clade (Hormiops (Hormurus + Liocheles)) are more akin to those of Diplocentridae and Heteroscorpionidae than to those of other hormurids. Spermatophore capsular patterns appears to be congruent with a recent phylogeny of the order Scorpiones based on phylogenomic data that placed Bothriuridae outside of Scorpionoidea and Liocheles outside of Hormuridae, in contradicton with earlier phylogenetic reconstructions based on morphology. This raises questions about the potential use of functionally constrained traits to assess the reliability of contradicting phylogenetic hypotheses and emphasizes the need for a thorough reassessment of the scorpion phylogenetic relationships.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 5 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 37 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 37 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 9 24%
Student > Master 4 11%
Student > Bachelor 4 11%
Student > Doctoral Student 2 5%
Student > Postgraduate 2 5%
Other 7 19%
Unknown 9 24%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 12 32%
Environmental Science 7 19%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 3 8%
Unspecified 1 3%
Arts and Humanities 1 3%
Other 3 8%
Unknown 10 27%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 May 2023.
All research outputs
#13,338,481
of 23,008,860 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Zoology
#436
of 655 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#209,286
of 437,841 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Zoology
#10
of 14 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,008,860 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 41st percentile – i.e., 41% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 655 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 20.9. This one is in the 32nd percentile – i.e., 32% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 437,841 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 51% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 14 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 28th percentile – i.e., 28% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.