Moorean tree snail survival revisited: a multi-island genealogical perspective.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The mass extirpation of the island of Moorea's endemic partulid tree snail fauna, following the deliberate introduction of the alien predator Euglandina rosea, represents one of the highest profile conservation crises of the past thirty years. All of the island's partulids were thought to be extirpated by 1987, with five species persisting in zoos, but intensive field surveys have recently detected a number of surviving wild populations. We report here a mitochondrial (mt) phylogenetic estimate of Moorean partulid wild and captive lineage survival calibrated with a reference museum collection that pre-dates the predator's introduction and that also includes a parallel dataset from the neighboring island of Tahiti.

Results

Although severe winnowing of Moorea's mt l

SUBMITTER: Lee T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3087522 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature