The loach genus Lepidocephalichthys (Teleostei: Cobitidae) in Sri Lanka and peninsular India: multiple colonizations and unexpected species diversity

Sudasinghe, Hiranya; Dahanukar, Neelesh; Raghavan, Rajeev; Ranasinghe, Tharindu; Wijesooriya, Kumudu; Pethiyagoda, Rohan; Rüber, Lukas; Meegaskumbura, Madhava

doi:10.1007/s10750-023-05321-4

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 35 publications

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“…bimaculatus from Sri Lanka to India. Evidence for Sri Lanka-India back-migrations from other faunal groups, however, is scarce: the case of Lepidocephalichthys thermalis been the only other known case for freshwater fishes 28 . Beenaerts et al 6 and Meegaskumbura et al 5 showed, however, that freshwater crabs and shrub frogs too, had on occasion gone on to colonize India from Sri Lanka.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogeography and evolutionary history of Puntius sensu lato (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in Sri Lanka

Sudasinghe,

Ranasinghe,

Dahanukar

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Sri Lanka’s biota is derived largely from Southeast Asian lineages which immigrated via India following its early-Eocene contact with Laurasia. The island is now separated from southeastern India by the 30 km wide Palk Strait which, during sea-level low-stands, was bridged by the 140 km-wide Palk Isthmus. Consequently, biotic ingress and egress were mediated largely by the climate of the isthmus. Because of their dependence on perennial aquatic habitats, freshwater fish are useful models for biogeographic studies. Here we investigate the timing and dynamics of the colonization of—and diversification on—Sri Lanka by a group of four closely-related genera of cyprinid fishes (Puntius sensu lato). We construct a molecular phylogeny based on two mitochondrial and two nuclear gene markers, conduct divergence timing analyses and ancestral-range estimations to infer historical biogeography, and use haplotype networks to discern phylogeographic patterns. The origin of Puntius s.l. is dated to ~ 20 Ma. The source of diversification of Puntius s.l. is Sri Lanka-Peninsular India. Species confined to perhumid rainforests show strong phylogeographic structure, while habitat generalists show little or no such structure. Ancestral range estimations for Plesiopuntius bimaculatus and Puntius dorsalis support an ‘Out of Sri Lanka’ scenario. Sri Lankan Puntius s.l. derive from multiple migrations across the Palk Isthmus between the early Miocene and the late Pleistocene. Species dependent on an aseasonal climate survived aridification in rainforest refugia in the island’s perhumid southwest and went on to recolonize the island and even southern India when pluvial conditions resumed. Our results support an historical extinction of Sri Lanka’s montane aquatic fauna, followed by a recent partial recolonization of the highlands, showing also that headwater stream capture facilitated dispersal across basin boundaries.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biogeography and evolutionary history of Puntius sensu lato (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in Sri Lanka

Sudasinghe,

Ranasinghe,

Dahanukar

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Phylogenetic and phylogeographic insights into Sri Lankan killifishes (Teleostei: Aplocheilidae)

Sudasinghe,

Ranasinghe,

Wijesooriya

et al. 2024

Journal of Fish Biology

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Three nominal species of the killifish genus Aplocheilus are reported from the lowlands of Sri Lanka. Two of these, Aplocheilus dayi and Aplocheilus werneri, are considered endemic to the island, whereas Aplocheilus parvus is reported from both Sri Lanka and Peninsular India. Here, based on a collection from 28 locations in Sri Lanka, also including a dataset of Asian Aplocheilus downloaded from GenBank, we present a phylogeny constructed from the mitochondrial cytochrome b (cytb), mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1), and nuclear recombination activating protein 1 (rag1), and investigate the interrelationships of the species of Aplocheilus in Sri Lanka. The endemic Sri Lankan aplocheilid clade comprising A. dayi and A. werneri is recovered as the sister group to the clade comprising A. parvus from Sri Lanka and Aplocheilus blockii from Peninsular India. The reciprocal monophyly of A. dayi and A. werneri is not supported in our molecular phylogeny. A. dayi and A. werneri display strong sexual dimorphism, but species‐level differences are subtle, explained mostly by pigmentation patterns. Their phenotypes exhibit a parapatric distribution and may represent locally adapted forms of a single species. Alternatively, the present study does not rule out the possibility that A. dayi and A. werneri may represent an incipient species pair or that they have undergone introgression or hybridization in their contact zones. We provide evidence that the Nilwala‐Gin region of southwestern Sri Lanka may have acted as a drought refugium for these fishes.

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The loach genus Lepidocephalichthys (Teleostei: Cobitidae) in Sri Lanka and peninsular India: multiple colonizations and unexpected species diversity

Cited by 2 publications

References 35 publications

Biogeography and evolutionary history of Puntius sensu lato (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in Sri Lanka

Biogeography and evolutionary history of Puntius sensu lato (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in Sri Lanka

Phylogenetic and phylogeographic insights into Sri Lankan killifishes (Teleostei: Aplocheilidae)

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