Taxonomic identity of the endangered Snake River physa, Physa natricina (Pulmonata: Physidae) combining traditional and
- PDF / 405,760 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 65 Downloads / 122 Views
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Taxonomic identity of the endangered Snake River physa, Physa natricina (Pulmonata: Physidae) combining traditional and molecular techniques Kiza K. Gates • Billie L. Kerans • John L. Keebaugh Steven Kalinowski • Ninh Vu
•
Received: 21 February 2012 / Accepted: 7 December 2012 / Published online: 21 December 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012
Abstract The conservation of some imperiled species has been impaired by taxonomic uncertainty. The Snake River physa, Physa natricina Taylor 1988, is an endangered gastropod to the middle Snake River that has rarely been collected live. The rarity of P. natricina and the lack of live specimens have fueled debate regarding the validity of the species. Our objectives were to: determine if P. natricina existed in a suspected population area; if found, to compare shell morphology to the holotype and soft tissue to the original description; review available museum specimens to determine species range; and phylogenetically compare suspect P. natricina with confamilial and other known Physidae. Sampling yielded suspect P. natricina with shell morphology matching the holotype and dissections revealed that the soft tissue was within the purview of the original description and not overlapping the characters of other Physidae. Review of museum Physidae collected from the Snake River revealed suspect P. natricina as far downstream as RK 592. Physella gyrina was the only confamilial species found during sampling and during review of Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10592-012-0439-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. K. K. Gates (&) B. L. Kerans S. Kalinowski N. Vu Department of Ecology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA e-mail: [email protected] J. L. Keebaugh Orma J. Smith Museum of Natural History, The College of Idaho, Caldwell, ID 83605, USA Present Address: N. Vu Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, 205 SE Spokane Street, Suite 100, Portland, OR 97202, USA
museum collections. Phylogenetic analyses (maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, Bayesian inference, and UPGMA) of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and ribosomal subunit 16S markers strongly supported P. natricina as a reciprocal monophyletic group and a distinct evolutionary significant unit. Our results confirm the original description of P. natricina as a distinct species and expand the extant distribution highlighting the importance of combining traditional methods of taxonomic description with modern molecular tools when working with species of conservation concern. Keywords Physa natricina Snake River Gastropod conservation Phylogeny Physidae
Introduction Clarifying the taxonomic identity of imperiled species is vital for their conservation. This task may be especially challenging when dealing with rare species that are difficult to identify and coexist with taxonomically similar common species. For example, freshwater molluscs are in global decline (Lydeard et al
Data Loading...
