Journal of Heredity Advance Access originally published online on February 17, 2006
Journal of Heredity 2006 97(2):143-149; doi:10.1093/jhered/esj025
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Paleobiogeography of Two Iberian Endemic Cyprinid Fishes (Chondrostoma arcasii-Chondrostoma macrolepidotus) Inferred from Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Data
Unidade de Investigação em Eco-Etologia, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Rua Jardim do Tabaco 44, 1149-041 Lisboa, Portugal (Robalo, Santos, and Almada); and the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain (Doadrio)
Address correspondence to J. I. Robalo at the address above, or e-mail: jrobalo{at}ispa.pt.
We tested different hypotheses related to the origin and evolution of the endemic Iberian fishes Chondrostoma arcasii and Chondrostoma macrolepidotus from northern and central regions of the Iberian Peninsula. We evaluated the monophyly of the populations within each species and sought to determine if diversification of the populations coincided in time with the formation of the Iberian drainages dating back to the upper Pliocene (2.51.8 million years ago). A molecular phylogenetic analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene showed that the different populations of the northern Iberian Peninsula are clustered into five phylogroups and do not fit into the dichotomy C. arcasii-C. macrolepidotus. We propose that species differentiation occurred prior to the upper Pliocene formation of the present hydrographic basins and that endorheic basins, a system of inland lakes found in Spain during the Mio-Pliocene, played an important role in this diversification and differentiation process.