Historical Biogeography of the Marine Snail Littorina saxatilis Inferred from Haplotype and Shell Morphology Evolution in NW Spain.

ABSTRACT: The marine snail Littorina saxatilis exhibits extreme morphological variation between and within geographical regions and represents an excellent model for assessing local adaptation. Previous studies support the hypothesis of parallel evolution in sympatry of two morphologically different ecotypes (named as RB and SU) that co-inhabit different habitats from Galician rocky shores (NW Spain), and which are interrupted by sheltered areas inhabited by a different morph never studied before (named as SRB). Here, we use morphological and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence data to test hypotheses on the origin and diversification of SRB snails and to assess their evolutionary relationships with RB and SU ecotypes. Our results show that the SRB morph displays the largest size and shell elongation

SUBMITTER: Tirado T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4981350 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature