An integrative taxonomic approach reveals unexplored diversity in Croatian planarians
Overall, our effort integrates Croatia as an underexplored but planaria species-rich region into the endeavour to systematically describe the planarian fauna of Europe. The expansion of a known number of Croatian planarian species from eight to sixteen and the discovery of a new, large planarian species in continental Europe, Dendrocoelum pigmentatum, demonstrate the effectiveness of our integrative approach. Overall, our work highlights the underappreciated diversity of planarians, even in continental Europe and supports practical conservation efforts to preserve aquatic biodiversity.
Authors
- Marta Riutort (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2134-7674)
- Tobias Boothe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1925-0213)
- Yuliia Kanana (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0838-9714)
- Ludwik Gąsiorowski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2238-7587)
- Markus A. Grohme (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4250-5600)
- Jeremias N. Brand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6126-8279)
- Jochen C. Rink (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6381-6742)
- Helena Bilandžija (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4922-0149)
- Uri Weill (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8021-3054)
- Maren Brockmeyer
- Lucija Kauf
- Fruzsina Ficze-Schmidt
- Kasper H. Kluiver
- Miquel Vila-Farré
Institutions
- London Metropolitan University (GB)
- National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (UA)
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (DE)
- Ruđer Bošković Institute (HR)
- I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology (UA)
- Tissue Dynamics (Israel) (IL)
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences (DE)
- University of Warsaw (PL)
- Universitat de Barcelona (ES)
- University of Göttingen (DE)
- University of Lübeck (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Frontiers in Zoology
- Published
- 2026-03-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-026-00603-8
- Primary Topic
- Planarian Biology and Electrostimulation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00