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Morphological and genetic evidence for two evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) in the South American fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella

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Abstract

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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Acknowledgements

Thanks to the collection managers: Paulo César Simões-Lopes (LAMAQ/UFSC, Florianópolis, Brazil); Ignacio B. Moreno (GEMARS/CECLIMAR, Porto Alegre, Brazil), Cibele Andruziak (MCN/FZBRS, Porto Alegre, Brazil); Charles Potter and James Mead (NMNH, Washington DC, USA); Robert Randall (AMNH, New York, USA); Paula Jenkins, Robert Harbour and Daphne (BMNH, London, UK); Andrey Friday (Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK); Walter Sielfeld (UAP, Iquique, Chile); Claudio Venegas (IP, Punta Arenas, Chile); Luis Cappozzo and Olga Vacaro (MACN “Bernardino Rivadávia”, Buenos Aires, Argentina); Diego Rodriguez and Ricardo Bastida (FCN, Mar del Plata, Argentina); Natalie P. Goodal (Museo Acatushún, Ushuaia, Argentina); Ernesto Piana (CADIC, Ushuaia, Argentina); Enrique Crespo (CENPAT, Puerto Madryn, Argentina), Milena Roca Fabián (Proyecto Punta San Juan, Lima, Peru), Alfredo Le Bas and Mario Clara (FCN, Montevideo, Uruguay). To Daniel Danilewicz, Mauricio Tavares, Rodrigo Machado, Paulo H. Ott, Ignacio B. Moreno and Márcio Borges-Martins for collaborating in necropsies on the Brazilian coast; to the research team of the Punta San Juan Project (1997 and 2003): Nora Rueda, Gabriela Battistini, Rosana Paredes, Carlos Zavalaga, Diana, and Juan Cervantes-Sanchez, Milena Roca Fabián, Susana Cárdenas, Armando Valdés-Velásquez, Marco Cardeña, Manuel Apaza and Pedro Llerena for the helping in the sampling activity in Peru. To Cristine Trinca for your great help with Structure program and to Marcus Guidoti for formatting part of data set. To Diego Astua de Moraes and Milton E. Menezes, who kindly prepared the Fig 2 and to Ignacio B. Moreno who prepared the Fig. 1. To the anonymous referees whose valuable comments improved this article.

To Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), which provided the PhD grant to Larissa Rosa de Oliveira (FAPESP 00/00248-2, 00/01340-0), to Society for Marine Mammalogy (grants-in-aid program) for partially funding the museum visits, and also to MCT/CNPq/Prosul (CNPq 490281/2005-2) for funding field activities in order to collect tissue samples. This study is part of the dissertation presented by Larissa Rosa de Oliveira, submitted in partial fulfillment for a PhD degree in Biology (Genetics) at Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. Samples were collected under permission of license number 022-2004-INRENA-IFFS-DCB in Peru and IBAMA-105/98 in Brazilian coast. This paper is GEMARS contribution 19.

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  1. Larissa Rosa de Oliveira

    Present address: Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Aquáticos do Rio Grande do Sul (GEMARS), Rua Felipe Néri 382/203, Porto Alegre, RS, 90550-140, Brazil

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Biologia Evolutiva e Conservação de Vertebrados (LABEC), Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 277, Cidade Universitária, Sao Paulo, SP, 05508-090, Brazil

    Larissa Rosa de Oliveira & João Stenghel Morgante

  2. Centro de Estudos Costeiros, Limnológicos e Marinhos da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (CECLIMAR/UFRGS), Av. Tramandaí, 976, Tramandai, RS, 95625-000, Brazil

    Larissa Rosa de Oliveira

  3. Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, UK

    Joseph I. Hoffman & William Amos

  4. Laboratório de Mastozoologia, Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Nazaré, 481, Ipiranga, Sao Paulo, SP, 04299-970, Brazil

    Erika Hingst-Zaher

  5. Unidad de Biología de la Conservación, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), Armendáriz 445, Miraflores, Lima, 18, Peru

    Patricia Majluf

  6. Laboratório de Mamíferos Marinhos e Tartarugas Marinhas, Departamento de Oceanografia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Oceanografia Biológica, Cx. Postal, 474, Rio Grande, RS, 96201-900, Brazil

    Mônica M. C. Muelbert

Authors
  1. Larissa Rosa de Oliveira
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  2. Joseph I. Hoffman
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  3. Erika Hingst-Zaher
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  4. Patricia Majluf
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  5. Mônica M. C. Muelbert
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  6. João Stenghel Morgante
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  7. William Amos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Larissa Rosa de Oliveira.

Appendix

Appendix

Specimens examined in the skull morphometrics study. The 240 adult specimens (235 Arctocephalus australis and 5 A. gazella) used in this study were obtained from the following collections:

Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Aquáticos do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (GEMARS: 0173; 0176; 0185; 0208; 0218; 0256; 0259; 0263; 0278; 0280; 0293; 0297; 0298; 0302; 0308; 0316; 0321; 0338; 0359; 0361; 0364; 0368; 0425; 0429; 0436; 0439; 0445; 0450; 0537; 0542; 0544; 0558; 0561; 0578; 0581; 0582; 0584; 0586; 0589; 0655; 0661; 0681; 0694; 0706; 0721; 0739; 0801), Museu de Ciências Naturais da Fundação Zoobotânica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (MCN-FZB: 2630; 2637; 2688; 2706; 2886), Laboratório de Mamíferos Aquáticos da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil (LAMAQ-UFSC: 1057; 1063; 135; 1142; 1143; 1149; 1153; 1154; 1156; 1157; 1158; 1159; 1160; 1163; 1166; 1167; 1169; 1170; 1228; 1274), Laboratório de Mamíferos Aquáticos e Tartarugas Marinhas da Fundação Universidade do Rio Grande, Brazil (LMM-FURG: s/no.7; 0101; 0608; 0609; 0663; 0684; 0726; 0731; 0732; 0750; 0754; 0840; 0863; 0890; 1258; 1282; 1336; 1338; 1340; 1341; 1342; 1346; 1431; 1435; 1437; 1438; 1442; 1444; 1464; 1535; 1549; 1554; 1657; 1690; 1738; 1742; 1748; 1781; 1808; 1813; 1815; 1824; 1859; 1898; 1903; 1985; 2045; 2084; 2121; 2267), Centro Nacional Patagónico, Argentina (CENPAT: Aa16), American Museum of Natural History, USA (AMNH: 205916; 205917; 205918; 254562; 254563; 254564; 254565; 254569), Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Uruguay (FCN: 1522; 1580), National Museum of Natural History – Smithsonian Institution, USA (NMNH: 239140; 504895), British Museum of Natural History, UK (BMNH: 1947.7.16.4; 1984.911; 1984.912; 1984.918; 1984.920; 1984.921; 1984.923; 1984.924; 1984.926; 1984.927; 1984.928; 1984.930; 1984.931; 1984.932; 1984.933; 1984.934; 1984.935; 1984.939; 1984.942a; 1984.947; 1984.948; 1984.949; 1984.969; 1984.972; 1984.973; 1984.975; 1984.978), Proyecto Punta San Juan, Peru (PSJ: 0005; 0008; 0009; 0078; 0143; 0168; 0178; 0180; 0209; 0210; 0216; 0217; 0220; 0221; 0222; 0234; 0236; 0237; 0238; 0239; 0240; 0241; 0242; 0261; 0262; 0263; 0264; 0265; 0266; 0267; 0268; 0287; 0295; 0297; 0298; 0300; 0302; 0304; 0306; 0307; 0319; 0320; 0321; 0322; 0323; 0324; 0325; 0326; 0327; 0328; 0329; 0330; 0331; 0367; 0368; 0369; 0370; 0371; 0372; 0373; 0374; 0375; 0376; 0377; 0378; 0379; 0417; 0418; 0447; 0448; 0450; 0460; 0461; 0462) and Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK (K.7321K; K.7321L; K.7321M; K.7321N; K.7321O). Total sample examined: Arctocephalus australis from Uruguay (n = 133) and Arctocephalus australis from Peru (n = 102); Arctocephalus gazella (n = 5).

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de Oliveira, L.R., Hoffman, J.I., Hingst-Zaher, E. et al. Morphological and genetic evidence for two evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) in the South American fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella . Conserv Genet 9, 1451–1466 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-007-9473-1

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