Centropyge taxonomy and evolution

[Luiz Rocha]

Hi all, my collaborators and I just published a paper about the evolution and taxonomy of the Centropyge flavissima species group (C. flavissima, C. vrolikii and C. eibli). I am working on a "translation" of the paper into more accessible (less scientific) language, but for those more scientifically inclined, the paper is here:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/p514m5271m75p236/

In a nutshell, genetics does not agree with species (and color), but kind of agrees with geographic areas. The C. flavissima from Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) is genetically identical to C. eibli, and we think this is because they hybridized and part of C. eibli's DNA was transferred to C. flavissima there. Most Pacific C. flavissima have the same very similar DNA to C. vrolikii (again probably due to hybridization) and the only place where we find "pure" C. flavissima is French Polynesia.

 

[lebreef]

I am sorry for my lack of genetics knowledge here, but would that mean that they are slowly shifting into becoming three distinct species? or is the DNA evidence already sufficient to separate them?

This is very interesting!

 

[Luiz Rocha]

DNA evidence actually points to them not being species... What we think that most likely happened is that they were separate in the past and started hybridizing relatively recently, mixing up their DNA again.

 

[Yurivd]

Thanks for clearing it up
Nice read

 

[roni]

Luiz,

bookmarked for later. looking forward to reading through it.

Roni