Body size, is one of the crucial characteristics of animals, and therefore has distinct effects on their morphology, physiology and bionomics. Extremely small body size of some invertebrates, comparable with dimensions of most unicellular organisms can lead to major transformations such as renunciation of certain physiological functions and organ reductions that seemingly contradict fundamental biological principles. Miniaturization (body size reduction), being one of the most important evolution trends in Arthropoda, has majorly contributed to the evolutionary success of arthropods, allowing them to inhabit all sorts of environments and niches. In some groups size diminution reached thousands of times, therefore serious rearrangement of all organ systems had to occur. Despite the fact that recently there has been a raise of interest towards miniaturization in Arthropoda, there is not much known about the impact of this trend on crustaceans, a large and uniquely diverse lineage of arthropods with a plethora of various forms and life habits and a wide range of body sizes.
The goal of this project is a first detailed investigation of the anatomy of minute free-living crustaceans. It is supposed not only to shed light on the organization, biology and development of the tiny cladocerans, but also lead to important new insights in evolutionary processes linked with size reduction, a phenomenon that has obviously played a very important role in the diversification of the extremely diverse Arthropoda.
