Phylogenetic patterns in populations of Chilean species of the genus Orestias (Teleostei: Cyprinodontidae): results of mitochondrial DNA analysis

Genetic, morphological, and life history traits variation in freshwater snails from extremely high environments of the Andean Altiplano

“…The percentage of sequence divergence between lineages (1.9%) is within the range of nucleotide variation estimated between closely related species of Biomphalaria (0.5% to 3.3%, Jørgensen et al 2007;Collado et al 2011). The allopatric distribution of these lineages may be attributed to vicariance events which have occurred in this Altiplano region, as has been suggested to explain the presence of different freshwater fishes of the genus Orestias Valenciennes, 1839, which are co-distributed with Biomphalaria in this area (Lüssen et al 2003;Vila 2006;Vila et al 2011). The snails from Caquena and Colpa share a single haplotype.…”

“…In the southwestern area, the landscape has suffered an intense volcanic and sedimentary activity since the Miocene to the present (Clappeston 1993;Wörner et al 2000;Risacher et al 2003), which has generated a number of closed endorheic basins whose central depression is occupied by a variety of hydrologic systems with different physicochemical properties (Chong 1988;Keller and Soto 1998;Márquez-García et al 2010). During the Pleistocene, these systems were connected by a series of paleolakes (Lavenu et al 1984;Fornari et al 2001;Placzek et al 2006) that underwent successive cycles of expansions and regressions, which have been associated with the fractioning of the freshwater biota (Northcote 2000;Collado et al 2011;Morales et al 2011;Vila et al 2011;Lüssen et al 2003;Vila 2006) and the generation of ecosystems with a high degree of endemism (Veloso and Bustos-Obregón 1982;Rundel and Palma 2000;Vargas et al 2004). Thus, this region constitutes a natural laboratory to study evolutionary divergence.…”

Hidden diversity in spring snails from the Andean Altiplano, the second highest plateau on Earth, and the Atacama Desert, the driest place in the world

“…In the Andean Altiplano, the second highest plateau on Earth (Babeyko and Sobolev 2005), the dynamic and complex geological history of the region has produced ecosystems with a high degree of endemism (Veloso and Bustos-Obregón 1982;Dyer 2000;Vargas et al 2004), probably related to the extensive terraces and restricted mountain ranges that have originated since the Miocene (Wörner et al 2000;Risacher et al 2003;Strecker et al 2007). For example, the diversity of the killifish of the genus Orestias Valenciennes, 1839 and the lunged aquatic snails of the genus Biomphalaria Preston, 1910 is hypothesized to be principally a consequence of the fragmentation of populations during the Middle and Late Pleistocene after the regression of several paleolakes that existed in the area (Lüssen et al 2003;Vila 2006;Vila et al 2011Vila et al , 2013Collado et al 2011a). West of this area, the Atacama Desert, the driest place in the world (McKay 2002;Vesilind 2003) with thousands of square miles of arid desert interrupted by occasional oases, is a hyperarid system thought to be relatively simple ecologically and with low productivity (Noy-Meier 1973), but containing endemic species, for example, within the genus Basilichthys Girard, 1855 (Atheriniformes), that has allopatric distribution (Dyer 2000).…”

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

“…There is a vast amount of literature on the population diVerentiation of killiWsh from the morphological, genetic and molecular points of view (e.g. Echelle et al 1987;Garciamarin et al 1990;Fernandez-Pedrosa et al 1995;Strecker et al 1996;Wilde and Echelle 1997;Duhan and Minckley 1998;Duvernell and Turner 1999;Echelle et al 2000;Perdices et al 2001;Torralva et al 2001;Reichenbacher and Sienknecht 2002;Doadrio et al 2002;Lussen et al 2003).…”