Phylogenetic relationships, genetic diversity and biogeography of menhadens, genus Brevoortia (Clupeiformes, Clupeidae)

PIERRE BONETTI POZZOBON, ALLAN; RODRIGUES GONÇALVES, PABLO; ANDERSON, JOEL D.; ROCHA, LUIZ A.; DIAZ DE ASTARLOA, JUAN M.; DI DARIO, FABIO

MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Año: 2021 vol. 160

1055-7903

as menhadens in eastern North America and ?savelhas? or ?saracas? in southeastern South America. Species ofBrevoortia are important components of the marine food web of coastal ecosystems in the Atlantic and contributesignificantly to fisheries. In this study, the first phylogenetic and biogeographic hypotheses including all species ofBrevoortia are presented. A total of 113 specimens were analyzed using three molecular markers (two mitochondrial:COI and 16s; and one nuclear: RAG2). Maximum Parsimony, Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inferencewere employed to estimate phylogenetic relationships. A Bayesian multispecies coalescent approach was used toestimate a dated phylogeny, which supported biogeographic analyses of ancestral geographic ranges. Results corroborateprevious hypotheses that the four North Atlantic species are grouped in two clades, one composed of B.tyrannus (Latrobe, 1802) and B. patronus Goode, 1878, and the second including B. smithi Hildebrand, 1941 andB. gunteri Hildebrand, 1948. The South Atlantic B. aurea (Spix and Agassiz, 1829) and B. pectinata (Jenyns, 1842)form a third clade, which is sister to the clade composed of B. smithi and B. gunteri. The monophyly and validityof the six nominal species of Brevoortia were not supported. Results also indicate that Brevoortia originated in theNorth Atlantic during the middle Miocene (about 15 Mya). A cooling event of the tropical Atlantic at around10 Mya likely facilitated the range expansion of the genus to the South Atlantic, whereas a significant warmingof the tropical Atlantic waters during the late Miocene at 6?7 Mya possibly promoted the isolation between thenorthern and southern counterparts of that ancestral lineage. The relevance of the Florida Peninsula in associationwith sea level fluctuations for the diversification within Brevoortia is also discussed.