Guifré Torruella

Abstract INTRODUCTION RESULTS DISCUSSION MATERIALS AND METHODS Acknowledgments Supplementary Materials REFERENCES Information & Authors Metrics & Citations View Options References Figures Tables Media Share Abstract While the biogeographic patterns of animals and plants are well defined, the distribution of the microbial eukaryotic world remains contentious. Classically, protists were assumed to be cosmopolitan, dispersing everywhere with little geographic constraint.

1 Introduction Discocelis saleuta (Vørs 1988) Cavalier-Smith 2013 was described from marine sites of Denmark based on morphological observations using light and electron microscopy (Vørs 1988). The genus name Discocelis, an invalid homonym of the flatworm genus Discocelis Ehrenberg, 1836, was later replaced with Discocelia by Cavalier-Smith (2013): “we must distinguish flatworms from flat protozoa”. Ultrastructural studies have shown unique morphological features of D.

Abstract The global distribution of biodiversity is shaped by a complex interplay of evolutionary history and ecological processes. While biogeographic patterns are well defined for animals and plants, the global distributions of protists remain unclear. A key question is whether protists follow the same broad biogeographic principles as macroscopic life. To address this, we compiled 88 marine COI metabarcoding studies performing population‑genetic analyses across ocean basins.