Testing species delimitations in four Italian sympatric leuciscine fishes in the Tiber River: a combined morphological and molecular approach.

ABSTRACT: Leuciscine fishes represent an important component of freshwater ichthyofauna endemic to northern Mediterranean areas. This lineage shows high intra-specific morphological variability and exhibits high levels of hybridization, two characteristics that contribute to systematic uncertainties, misclassification of taxa and, potentially, the mismanagement of biodiversity. This study focused on brook chub, Squalius lucumonis, an endemic taxon of Central Italy. The taxonomic status of this species has long been questioned, and a hybrid origin from sympatric leusciscines (S. squalus x Rutilus rubilio, or S. squalus x Telestes muticellus) has been hypothesised. A phenotypic (evaluating shape and meristic counts) and genetic (using mitochondrial and nuclear markers) investigation of these four taxa

SUBMITTER: Tancioni L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3614999 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature