Genomic methods reveal independent demographic histories despite strong morphological conservatism in fish species.

ABSTRACT: Human overexploitation of natural resources has placed conservation and management as one of the most pressing challenges in modern societies, especially in regards to highly vulnerable marine ecosystems. In this context, cryptic species are particularly challenging to conserve because they are hard to distinguish based on morphology alone, and thus it is often unclear how many species coexist in sympatry, what are their phylogenetic relationships and their demographic history. We answer these questions using morphologically similar species of the genus Mugil that are sympatric in the largest coastal Marine Protected Area in the Tropical Southwestern Atlantic marine province. Using a sub-representation of the genome, we show that individuals are assigned to five highly differentiated genet

SUBMITTER: Neves JMM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8405619 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature