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Identification of a uniquely southern African clade of coastal pipefishes Syngnathus spp
M Mwale1, H Kaiser, N P Barker
1South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB), Grahamstown, South Africa. m.mwale@saiab.ac.za
Abstract:
The taxonomic status of two southern African coastal pipefish species, Syngnathus temminckii and Syngnathus watermeyeri, was investigated using a combination of morphological and genetic data. Morphological data showed that S. temminckii is distinct from the broadly distributed European pipefish Syngnathus acus, and a molecular phylogeny reconstructed using mitochondrial DNA recovered S. temminckii and S. watermeyeri as sister taxa. The southern African species share an evolutionary origin with north-eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea species, including S. acus. These data support the existence of a distinct southern African clade of Syngnathus pipefishes that has diverged in situ to form the two species present in the region today.
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