Quaternary geographical sibling speciation and population structuring in the Eastern Atlantic skates (suborder Rajoidea) Raja clavata and R. straeleni

The European Raja clavata and the South African R. straeleni are marine skates which exhibit highly conserved morphological and ecological traits. Owing to this, taxonomic and evolutionary relationships between the two taxa have not yet fully elucidated. Here, we have tested the hypothesis that rest...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine biology 2011-10, Vol.158 (10), p.2173-2186
Main Authors: Pasolini, Paola, Ragazzini, Chiara, Zaccaro, Zelia, Cariani, Alessia, Ferrara, Giorgia, Gonzalez, Elena G., Landi, Monica, Milano, Ilaria, Stagioni, Marco, Guarniero, Ilaria, Tinti, Fausto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agnatha. Pisces
Animal and plant ecology
Animal populations
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biogeography
Biological and medical sciences
Biological research
Biology, Experimental
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Distribution
Fish
Fish populations
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetic diversity
Haplotypes
Heterogeneity
Life Sciences
Marine
Marine & Freshwater Sciences
Marine biology
Microbiology
Oceanography
Origin of species
Original Paper
Quaternary
Raja clavata
Rajiformes
Sea water ecosystems
Skates (Fishes)
Speciation
Synecology
Taxa
Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution
Zoology
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Summary:The European Raja clavata and the South African R. straeleni are marine skates which exhibit highly conserved morphological and ecological traits. Owing to this, taxonomic and evolutionary relationships between the two taxa have not yet fully elucidated. Here, we have tested the hypothesis that restricted gene flow and genetic divergence between these taxa might be associated with climatic/oceanographic discontinuities by surveying genetic variation in ten geographical samples at control region (CR) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) loci. The clustering of CR haplotypes in two reciprocally monophyletic clades consistent with taxon zoogeography and the significant AFLP F values between the European and South African populations indicated the two taxa as recently diverged peripatric sibling species. Within each species, significant spatial genetic heterogeneity among samples at both markers revealed population structuring. We argued that structured populations and isolated sibling species might represent two stages of geographical speciation.
ISSN:0025-3162
1432-1793
DOI:10.1007/s00227-011-1722-7