How Many Abalone Species Live in the Mediterranean Sea?

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

It is an interesting study, however need to do little correction on the usage of word 'our' in the manuscript as it is a scientific research writing. 

- Abstract (line no 24)

-Introduction (line no 107)

- Materials and Methods (Line no 124)

-Conclusion (Line no 319)

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Abstract: 

 

L3: « Mediter-ranean » => Mediterranean

L5: « Tyr-rhenian» =>  Tyrrhenian

 

Material and methods: 

 

Which tissus did you used ? 

 

How many individual per localities ? 

 

To get the methods, i suggest to divide it in parts. Nothing mandatory just to get everything clearer. 

 

Results: 

 

Figure 6: Can you clarify the the three columns ? Why the third column look different ? 

 

Discussion: 

 

Maybe speak a bit more about possible consequences for fisheries and species conservation ? 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This is a good integrative study dealing with extremely morphologically plastic species. It highlights important problems of contemporary taxonomy and uses most advanced appropriate methods.

However, the manuscript itself can be further improved in M&M and Results sections:

Line 138: "In some cases, the primers mlCOIintR and mlCOIintF were used to amplify the two halves..." Other parts of your protocol are described in much better details. Please state explicitly how it can be found what exact samples are "some cases".

134-144: A table with primers and PCR programs would be really useful for researchers willing to use your protocol.

146: What PCR products were considered suitable? I guess you checked them by agarose gel electrophoresis, if so state it in obvious wording.

168: Figures look like they were modified with more than in just FigTree. It is OK, but you should mention it.

171: All this section is hard to read - it would be way better with a table.

Figures 3 and 4 can be moved to supplementary materials - you do not discuss them in detail, and the reconstruction based on the combined dataset is enough.

207: Did you mean best not highest ASAP score?

Figure 6 is a confusing one for reader less familiar with the method - your analysis was done for set of samples, not taxanomic species! Same results would be far better represented side by side with a phylogenetic tree (kind of like in the ASAP result figure, but on your Bayesian tree).

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx