Marine Species DNA Barcodes and Morphological Data from Southern Atlantic Morocco

145 specimens from 85 marine species collected in the Southern Atlantic Moroccan ecosystem were analyzed using DNA barcoding and morphological reassessment. The study produced 72 unique Barcode Index Numbers (BINs) in BOLD, with nine sequences forming three new BINs, and identified potential cryptic diversity in 23 species. This dataset, created by Anas Khattab and last updated in May 2026, contributes an updated marine species checklist for Morocco.

Use Cases

• Identifying marine species based on DNA barcode sequences mentioned in the description
• Investigating cryptic diversity and species boundaries using genetic and morphological data
• Updating regional marine species checklists for conservation planning
• Performing discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) on genetic sequence data
• Conducting neighbor-joining phylogenetic analyses to understand species relationships

Strengths

• Includes genetic data for 145 specimens from 85 species, providing a concrete sample size
• Integrates DNA barcoding results (72 unique BINs) with morphological reassessment for validation
• Identifies specific instances of potential cryptic diversity (23 species with 2-12 BINs)
• Data is shared under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license for reuse

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analyses
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• The dataset is small (73.2 KB), indicating limited scope and sample size

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Anas Khattab

Collection Method

Specimens were collected, DNA barcoded, and morphologically reassessed, with sequences analyzed in BOLD and used for DAPC and neighbor-joining analyses.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-04 22:12:39; freshness should be verified

Geography

Southern Atlantic Moroccan ecosystem