IngentaConnect Species Delineation and Evolutionary History of the Globally Dist...

Authors: Richards, Vincent P.; Henning, Marcy; Witzell, Wayne; Shivji, Mahmood S.

Source: Journal of Heredity, Volume 100, Number 3, 16 December 2009 , pp. 273-283(11)

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Journal of Heredity covers organismal genetics: gene action, regulation, and transmission in both plant and animal species, including the genetic aspects of botany, cytogenetics and evolution, zoology, and molecular and developmental biology.

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In this Subject: Agriculture (General) , Biology
By this author: Richards, Vincent P. ; Henning, Marcy ; Witzell, Wayne ; Shivji, Mahmood S.

Abstract:

The spotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari), a large coral reefassociated batoid of conservation concern, is currently described as a single, circumglobally distributed species. However, geographic differences in its morphology and parasite diversity have raised unconfirmed suspicions that A. narinari may constitute a species complex. We used 1570 bp of mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data (cytochrome b, cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, and internal transcribed spacer 2) to assess the validity of A. narinari as a single cosmopolitan species and infer its evolutionary history. Specimens from 4 major geographic regions were examined: the Central Atlantic, Eastern Pacific, Western Pacific, and Central Pacific. Phylogenies described 3 distinct, reciprocally monophyletic lineages with no genetic exchange among regions. Based on combined genealogical concordance and genetic distance criteria, we recommend that the Western/Central Pacific lineage be recognized as a distinct species from lineages in the Central Atlantic and Eastern Pacific. The latter 2 lineages, separated by the Isthmus of Panama, are proposed as subspecies. A basal position in phylogenetic analyses and statistical parsimony results support an Indo-West Pacific origin for the A. narinari species complex, with subsequent westerly dispersal around the southern tip of Africa into the Atlantic and then into the Eastern Pacific.

Keywords: batoid; conservation; evolutionary history; speciation

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1093/jhered/esp005

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Species Delineation and Evolutionary History of the Globally Distributed Spotted Eagle Ray (Aetobatus narinari)