Journal
CONSERVATION GENETICS
Volume 9, Issue 6, Pages 1451-1466Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10592-007-9473-1
Keywords
South American fur seal; Arctocephalus australis; Skull morphometrics; Microsatellite; Evolutionarily significant units (ESUs)
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Funding
- LAMAQ/UFSC, Florianopolis, Brazil
- GEMARS/CECLIMAR, Porto Alegre, Brazil
- MCN/FZBRS, Porto Alegre, Brazil
- NMNH, Washington DC, USA
- AMNH, New York, USA
- BMNH, London, UK
- Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- UAP, Iquique, Chile
- IP, Punta Arenas, Chile
- MACN Bernardino Rivada via'', Buenos Aires, Argentina
- FCN, Mar del Plata, Argentina
- Museo Acatushu n, Ushuaia, Argentina
- CADIC, Ushuaia, Argentina
- CENPAT, Puerto Madryn, Argentina
- Proyecto Punta San Juan, Lima, Peru
- FCN, Montevideo, Uruguay
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The South American fur seal (Arctocephalus australis) is widely distributed, occurring along both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts of South America. Previous work suggests there may be more than one subspecies, highlighting the need for further study. Here, we combine traditional and geometric morphometric analysis of skull shape and size with genetic data to compare two populations of South American fur seals, one from Uruguay and one from Peru. As a control group we used material from the closely related species Arctocephalus gazella. Both techniques of morphometric analysis reveal pronounced geographic variation in size and shape of the skull, with Peruvian specimens (n = 102) being larger than Uruguayan skulls (n = 133) and significant shape differences concentrated in the rostral region. Similarly, seven highly polymorphic microsatellite loci reveal highly significant differences in allele frequency. Moreover, Bayesian analysis implemented using the program STRUCTURE reveals two separate clusters corresponding perfectly to the two populations, with an assignment test correctly placing over 98% of specimens in their population of origin. This degree of differentiation for both genetic and morphological traits suggests complete and possibly prolonged isolation to the extent that we believe these populations should be considered distinct evolutionarily significant units.
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