Advances in Diversity, Evolutionary History and Ecology of Global Flatworms
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Phylogeny and Evolution".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 266
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive and integrative overview of the vast biological diversity, evolutionary history, and ecological significance of the phylum Platyhelminthes, a group comprising roughly 30,000 species of both free-living and parasitic flatworms. Characterized by their dorsoventral flatness, flatworms occupy an extraordinary range of habitats and lifestyles. The phylum encompasses two major clades: Catenulida, free-living forms inhabiting freshwater and marine environments, and Rhabditophora, a taxonomically rich group that includes Macrostomorpha, Polycladida, Proseriata, Tricladida, Rhabdocoela, and the exclusively parasitic Neodermata. These lineages display remarkable variation in size, form, and ecological strategies, ranging from minute interstitial turbellarians to large macroturbellarians that glide across coral reefs and freshwater and terrestrial substrates.
The evolutionary transition from free-living to parasitic lifestyles within Platyhelminthes will also be considered in this Special Issue. This shift involved key morphological and physiological innovations, including the development of the neodermis, a syncytial epidermal layer offering protection against host defenses and facilitating nutrient acquisition. Contrasts between the ciliated epidermis of free-living turbellarians and the specialized epidermal transformations in neodermatan parasites highlight the adaptive pathways that shaped the group’s diversification.
We invite contributions that explore all aspects of flatworm biology—taxonomy, morphology, genomics, development, physiology, ecology, and evolution—across marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments. Studies on free-living species, ectocommensal forms, and parasitic Neodermata are all welcome. By bringing together diverse perspectives, this Special Issue seeks to deepen our understanding of flatworm diversity and elucidate the processes that underlie their exceptional evolutionary and ecological success.
Dr. Francisco Brusa
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Publisher’s Notice
The Special Issue has been shifted from Section Microbial Diversity and Culture Collections to Section Phylogeny and Evolution on 15 December 2025. At the time of the move, there were no publications in this Special Issue.
Keywords
- platyhelminthes
- flatworm diversity
- rhabditophora
- catenulida
- neodermata
- parasitism
- taxonomy
- phylogenomics
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