Pharyngeal and oral jaw differentiation in five populations ofLebias fasciata(Teleostei, Cyprinodontidae)

Morphological variation among populations of Aphanius fasciatus Nardo, 1827 (Teleostei, Cyprinodontidae) from the Mediterranean

“…Studies by Neves & Monteiro (2003) showed shape differences, mostly localized in the head region and mid‐body, among south‐eastern Brazilian populations of the molly Poecilia vivipara Bloch & Schneider from various habitats within the same lagoon, as well as from separate coastal lagoons. In the present case, data on the morphological differentiation of Aphanius populations are not abundant (Grimm, 1979; Alkahem, 1991; Doadrio et al , 2002) and osteological observations have only been carried out on A. fasciatus (Tigano & Ferrito, 1985; Tigano & Parenti, 1988; Tigano, 1991; Parenti & Tigano, 1993; Tigano et al , 2001; Ferrito et al , 2003). It is not possible, therefore, to evaluate the amount of osteological differentiation that was found in this species in relation to that occurring in other species of the same genus.…”

A study of osteological and molecular differences in populations of Aphanius fasciatus Nardo 1827, from the central Mediterranean (Teleostei, Cyprinodontidae)

“…On the other hand, the molecular analysis carried out by Hrbek and Meyer (2003) showed that there is limited structuring of A. fasciatus populations; however, authors who analysed various species of the genus Aphanius, considered mitochondrial genes more useful for studies above the species level. While the allozyme studies indicate that, in some cases, there is indeed genetic divergence of the populations in relation to their geographic distribution (Maltagliati 1998a(Maltagliati , 1999, other studies both based on allozymic (Cimmaruta et al 2003) and morphological data (Tigano et al 2001;Ferrito et al 2003), suggest that this divergence does not relate to the geographic distance between the diVerent populations. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the degree of diVerentiation of nine populations of the killiWsh A. fasciatus from the central Mediterranean, on the basis of molecular and morphological analyses, with reference to the palaeogeographic history of the Mediterranean area.…”

“…The natural fragmentation of such saline habitats contributes to the non-contiguous coastal distribution of this species, and studies of gene Xow between populations suggest that the one-dimensional stepping-stone model proposed by Kimura and Weiss (1964) and Slatkin (1994) might best describe the mechanisms shaping the genetic structure of this species (Maltagliati 1998b). Studies on the population diVerentiation of A. fasciatus have utilised the osteology of the skull (Tigano and Ferrito 1985;Tigano and Parenti 1988;Tigano 1991;Parenti and Tigano 1993;Tigano et al 1999Tigano et al , 2001, allozymic variation (Comparini et al 1984;Maltagliati 1998aMaltagliati , b, 1999Maltagliati , 2002Maltagliati et al 2003;Cimmaruta et al 2003), and cytogenetic variation (Vitturi et al 1995;Ferrito et al 2000;. The allozymic and morphological investigations have all demonstrated a notable diVerentiation of the populations; analogously, the analysis of the highly variable D-loop tract of the mitochondrial DNA (Tigano et al 2004a, b) has indicated a strong genetic divergence between three Sicilian populations of this species.…”

Osteological and molecular analysis of three Sicilian populations ofAphanius fasciatus(Teleostei, Cyprinodontidae)

“…The allozyme analyses showed that this species is made up of a group of populations whose differentiation seems to be correlated with its geographical distribution (Cognetti & Maltagliati, 2000), while the osteological polymorphism of the skull cannot be interpreted biogeographically (Tigano et al, 2001;Ferrito et ah, 2003). Mitochondrial DNA has been used in population studies due to its limited length, maternal transmission, and its elevated evolutive rate (Brown et al, 1979;Wilson et al, 1985) and particularly the mitochondrial control region (D-loop) has been found to be a good population marker (Bernardi, 2000).…”