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GENIC VARIATION AND DIFFERENTIATION OF REMNANT NATURAL POPULATIONS OF THE DESERT PUPFISH, CYPRINODON MACULARIUS
Author(s) -
Turner Bruce J.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1983.tb05590.x
Subject(s) - biology , citation , variation (astronomy) , desert (philosophy) , state (computer science) , genealogy , library science , art history , history , computer science , epistemology , physics , algorithm , astrophysics , philosophy
The fish fauna of the southwestern American deserts has attracted wide attention because it is a fauna of relict populations isolated by harsh terrestrial environments. Most attention has focused on "pupfishes" of the genus Cyprinodon (family Cyprinodontidae) among which isolation, presumably coupled with both natural selection and stochastic forces, has seemingly led to the development of a large number of morphologically distinctive populations. Many of these are recognized as different species (reviewed in Miller, 1981). Pupfishes of the Death Valley region and geologically related waters (the Colorado River and its affluents and associated drainages) offer the most distinctive examples of rapid (frequently postPleistocene) divergence (Miller, 1948, 1950). The only biochemical genetic study of the pupfishes of the Death Valley region and the Colorado basin is that of Turner (1974). That study compared described species; intraspecific or interpopulation variation was not addressed. Thus, despite environmental, life history, and/or breeding structure differences which might influence genetic variation among conspecific pupfish isolates, few genetic data are available. This paper presents the results of an intensive allozyme survey of remnant populations of the desert pupfish, C. macularius. The data reveal that intraspecific differentiation is at the low level of the interspecific differentiation noted earlier, and suggest that the role of geographic isolation per se in fostering the differentiation of relict fish populations may have been overestimated.