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Journal Molluscan Studies Advance Access originally published online on January 9, 2007
Journal of Molluscan Studies 2007 73(1):1-10; doi:10.1093/mollus/eyl023
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Malacological Society of London, all rights reserved

Sympatric speciation as a by-product of ecological adaptation in the Galician Littorina saxatilis hybrid zone

Emilio Rolán-Alvarez

Departamento de Bioquímica, Genética e Inmunología, Facultad de Biología, Campus Universitario de Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Spain

Correspondence: e-mail: rolan{at}uvigo.es


  Abstract

On exposed rocky shores in northwestern Spain there is a striking polymorphism of Littorina saxatilis that has been claimed as an example of a putative sympatric ecological speciation process. Two ecotypes of this species have evolved that are adapted to different shore levels and habitats, although they meet and hybridize on the mid shore where their two habitats overlap. As a by-product of adaptation these ecotypes have evolved an incomplete premating reproductive isolation where they meet on the mid shore. Although they are not yet true species, and the final outcome of the process cannot be predicted, the ecological mechanisms responsible for this polymorphism could cause sympatric speciation in similar situations. Here, I review all data in support of these claims and discuss the interest of such a model system in microevolutionary studies.

(Received 13 February 2006; accepted 25 October 2006)


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This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Phil Trans R Soc BHome page
R. K Butlin, J. Galindo, and J. W Grahame
Sympatric, parapatric or allopatric: the most important way to classify speciation?
Phil Trans R Soc B, September 27, 2008; 363(1506): 2997 - 3007.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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