Meeting Abstract

15.3  Friday, Jan. 4  Understanding discordance among diverse datasets in an integrative taxonomy: a case study in ground squirrels PHUONG, M. A.*; LIM, M.; WAIT, D. R.; ROWE, K. C.; MORITZ, C.; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Berkeley; Museum Victoria, Melbourne; Australian National University markphuong@gmail.com

Species represent the fundamental taxonomic unit in nearly all disciplines of biology. Integrative taxonomy is a relatively new approach to identify lineages in which multiple lines of evidence are gathered to diagnose species and discordances between diverse datasets are resolved by invoking evolutionary explanations. Recent molecular work using mitochondrial DNA on species within the genus Otospermophilus showed discordant inferences of species boundaries relative to the current taxonomy. As such, genetic (1 mitochondrial locus, 11 nuclear loci, and 11 microsatellite markers), ecological (8 bioclimatic variables), and morphological (23 skull measurements) data were collected and analyzed to delimit species within the genus Otospermophilus. Genetic results support the presence of four species of paraphyletic origin with very little differentiation along morphological and ecological axes. Discordances between these lines of evidence can be explained by a model of peripatric speciation. Our results demonstrate the utility of considering models of speciation in understanding conflicting species boundary inferences from diverse lines of evidence.