Not so sluggish: the success of the Felimare picta complex (Gastropoda, Nudibranchia) crossing Atlantic biogeographic barriers
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Aquaculture, Fisheries and Fish Science, Biodiversity, Biogeography, Evolutionary Studies, Marine Biology
- Keywords
- mid-Atlantic barrier, mitochondrial DNA, speciation
- Copyright
- © 2015 Almada et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2015. Not so sluggish: the success of the Felimare picta complex (Gastropoda, Nudibranchia) crossing Atlantic biogeographic barriers. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e1420v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1420v1
Abstract
The molecular phylogeny of the Atlanto-Mediterranean species of the genus Felimare, particularly those attributed to the species F. picta, was inferred using two mitochondrial markers (16S and COI). A recent revision of the Chromodorididae clarified the taxonomic relationships at the family level reclassifying all eastern Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean species of the genus Hypselodoris and two species of the genus Mexichromis, within the genus Felimare. However, conflicting taxonomic classifications have been proposed for a group with overlapping morphological characteristics and geographical distributions designated here as the Felimare picta complex. Three major groups were identified: one Mediterranean and amphi-Atlantic group; a western Atlantic group and a tropical eastern Atlantic group. F. picta forms a paraphyletic group since some subspecies are more closely related with taxa traditionaly classified as independent species (e.g. F. zebra) than with other subspecies with allopatric distributions (e.g. F. picta picta and F. picta tema). Usually, nudibranchs have adhesive demersal eggs, short planktonic larval phases and low mobility as adults unless rafting on floating materials occurs. However, the phylogeny of the F. picta complex suggests they had an unusual success crossing main Atlantic biogeographic barriers including the mid-Atlantic barrier. This ability to cross different biogeographic barriers may be related with F. picta distinct life history and ecological traits. Compared to other Chromodorididae F. picta presents large eggs and planktotrophic larvae which could be related with a longer planktonic phase.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Supplemental Information
Felimare (Hypselodoris) picta subspecies
Table S1 – Distribution areas of the six subspecies described for Felimare (Hypselodoris) picta .
Sampling localities and accession numbers
Table S2 – List of material included in this study, sampling localities and Genbank accession numbers.