Patterns and Processes of Marine Speciation: A Case Study of Indo-West Pacific Cowries

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9807316 Paulay We will generate a robust, complete phylogeny using two mitochondrial genes (COI and 16S) for a well documented and diverse group of marine gastropods, the cowries. This phylogeny will establish the patterns of speciation and test hypotheses of diversification by establishing the relative importance of different arenas and speciation mechanisms. Cowries are an ideal group for testing speciation processes in the Indo-West Pacific because 1.) they are extremely diverse; there are 148 extant species of Indo-West Pacific cowries that have been derived from 15 independent lineages, one of which has given rise to 69 species since the Miocene, 2.) they have a good fossil record, 3.) their geographic ranges are well-documented, 4.) many sister species still retain non-overlapping distributions, 5.) geographic variation is common within many species, and 6.) an initial phylogeny is already in hand. Cowries epitomize the large and rapid evolutionary radiations that so characterize the Indo-West Pacific. The proposed work will be the first major molecular phylogenetic attempt to analyze patterns of speciation in this most diverse marine region, and, as it is in a group of organisms with great phylogeographic power, it promises to test numerous hypotheses about Indo-West Pacific biogeography and diversification.