Geography of speciation affects rate of trait divergence in haemulid fishes.

ABSTRACT: Speciation and the interactions between recently diverged species are thought to be major causes of ecological and morphological divergence in evolutionary radiations. Here, we explore the extent to which geographical overlap and time since speciation may promote divergence in marine species, which represent a small fraction of currently published studies about the patterns and processes of speciation. A time-calibrated molecular phylogeny of New World haemulid fishes, a major radiation of reef and shore fishes in the tropical West Atlantic and East Pacific, reveals 21 sister species pairs, of which eight are fully sympatric and 13 are allopatric. Sister species comparisons show a non-significant relation between most of the phenotypic traits and time since divergence in allopatric taxa. A

SUBMITTER: Tavera JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6408603 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature