Gigantea and Magnifica are much closer related than Gigantea and Haddoni

ThRoewer · Sep 4, 2020

Phylogenetic relationships among the clownfish-hosting sea anemones (full article)

This article confirms what I suspected for a while now: gigantea and magnifica are very closely related.
The fact that there are several branches of gigantea and magnifica (and also most of the other host species) might also explain why some split and others not - there may actually a number of sub species or local variants.

Nemguy123 · Sep 5, 2020

ThRoewer said:
Phylogenetic relationships among the clownfish-hosting sea anemones (full article)

This article confirms what I suspected for a while now: gigantea and magnifica are very closely related.
The fact that there are several branches of gigantea and magnifica (and also most of the other host species) might also explain why some split and others not - there may actually a number of sub species or local variants.

Very very cool!

ThRoewer · Sep 8, 2020

Actually, based on the above research magnifica anemones belong into the genus Stichodactyla and not Heteractis:

So their correct name would be Stichodactyla magnifica.
At the same time the long tentacle anemone (currently Macrodactyla doreensis) is a member of the genus Heteractis and should therefore be Heteractis doreensis.

D-Nak · Sep 8, 2020

Very interesting!

Nemguy123 · Sep 8, 2020

Very cool stuff I had a feeling there was a closer connection between the 2. A lot of times scientists change classifications of things to make it easier. I also breed rare frogs and I have this species called a Mexican leaf frog it had its own special genus (pacheymedusa dachnicolor) and now it has been just recently grouped into regular leaf frog group so it’s genus is now (Agalychnis dachnicolor ) so it now seems that the frog closer related to red eye tree frogs even tho it’s not. It was only done for simplicity. That’s why I sometimes scrutinize scientific names. I Wonder where this confusion started? Is this a new classification guide or has it always been like this and no one actually properly identified them?