Phylogeography, Population Structure, and Species Delimitation in Rockhopper Penguins (Eudyptes chrysocome and Eudyptes moseleyi).

ABSTRACT: Rockhopper penguins are delimited as 2 species, the northern rockhopper (Eudyptes moseleyi) and the southern rockhopper (Eudyptes chrysocome), with the latter comprising 2 subspecies, the western rockhopper (Eudyptes chrysocome chrysocome) and the eastern rockhopper (Eudyptes chrysocome filholi). We conducted a phylogeographic study using multilocus data from 114 individuals sampled across 12 colonies from the entire range of the northern/southern rockhopper complex to assess potential population structure, gene flow, and species limits. Bayesian and likelihood methods with nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, including model testing and heuristic approaches, support E. moseleyi and E. chrysocome as distinct species lineages with a divergence time of 0.97 Ma. However, these analyses also indicat

SUBMITTER: Mays HL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7967833 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature