The birth of an endemic species flock: demographic history of the Bellamya group (Gastropoda, Viviparidae) in Lake Malawi

TY - JOUR

T1 - The birth of an endemic species flock

T2 - demographic history of the Bellamya group (Gastropoda, Viviparidae) in Lake Malawi

AU - Schultheiss, Roland

AU - Wilke, Thomas

AU - Jørgensen, Aslak

AU - Albrecht, Christian

PY - 2011/1

Y1 - 2011/1

N2 - Changes in habitat stability may significantly shape evolutionary patterns and processes in ancient lakes. In the present study, we use a hierarchical combination of molecular phylogenetic and coalescent approaches to investigate the evolutionary history of the endemic species of the gastropod genus Bellamya in the African rift-lake Malawi. By integrating our findings with reported palaeontological and palaeolimnological data, we demonstrate that all but one evolutionary lineage of the Pliocene Bellamya fauna in Lake Malawi became extinct. Coalescent analyses indicate that the modern radiation underwent both a sudden demographic and a spatial expansion after a genetic bottleneck. We argue that a reflooding of the lake after severe Pleistocene low stands offers a straightforward explanation for this pattern and may have triggered speciation processes in the modern endemic Bellamya radiation in Lake Malawi.

AB - Changes in habitat stability may significantly shape evolutionary patterns and processes in ancient lakes. In the present study, we use a hierarchical combination of molecular phylogenetic and coalescent approaches to investigate the evolutionary history of the endemic species of the gastropod genus Bellamya in the African rift-lake Malawi. By integrating our findings with reported palaeontological and palaeolimnological data, we demonstrate that all but one evolutionary lineage of the Pliocene Bellamya fauna in Lake Malawi became extinct. Coalescent analyses indicate that the modern radiation underwent both a sudden demographic and a spatial expansion after a genetic bottleneck. We argue that a reflooding of the lake after severe Pleistocene low stands offers a straightforward explanation for this pattern and may have triggered speciation processes in the modern endemic Bellamya radiation in Lake Malawi.

U2 - 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01574.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01574.x

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0024-4066

VL - 102

SP - 130

EP - 143

JO - Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

JF - Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

IS - 1

ER -