Historical biogeography and speciation in the Creole wrasses (Labridae, Clepticus)

• DOI: 10.1007/s00227-008-1118-5
• Publication Date: 2009-01-05T20:44:18Z
• Authors: Ricardo Beldade; J. B. Heiser; D. R. Robertson; J. L. Gasparini; S. R. Floeter; G. Bernardi
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Original Paper; 03 medical and health sciences; Ecology; Biomedicine general; Life Sciences; 14. Life underwater; Aquatic Science; Oceanography; Zoology; Microbiology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

We tested whether vicariance or dispersal was the likely source of speciation in the genus Clepticus by evaluating the evolutionary timing of the effect of the mid-Atlantic barrier, which separates C. brasiliensis and C. africanus, and the Amazon barrier, which separates C. parrae and C brasiliensis. Genetic data from three mitochondrial genes and one nuclear gene were used. Mitochondrial genes separated Clepticus into three well supported clades corresponding to the three recognized allopatric morpho-species. All analyses provided consistent support for an initial separation (~9.68 to 1.86 mya; 4.84% sequence divergence) of the Caribbean and South Atlantic lineages, followed by a much more recent divergence (~ 0.60 to 0.12 mya; 0.3% sequence divergence) of the Brazilian and African sister morpho-species. Both these phylogenetic events occurred well after the formation of the two barriers that currently separate those three allopatric populations. The planktonic larval duration of these species (35-49 days) and coastal pelagic habits may have facilitated dispersal by this genus across those dispersal barriers after they formed.