Cryptospecies

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In biology, a cryptospecies or cryptic species is a morphologically indistinguishable group ( population ) of living beings in which sexual reproduction with other individuals (previously) counted as the same species is not possible or only produces non-reproductive offspring. This is also known as reproductive isolation . Since an important criterion for the definition of a species (the ability to reproduce among each other) is not met, they cannot belong to one and the same species.

The term “cryptospecies” was first used by K. Larsen in 1957 with the meadow flat pea . In recent years, the phenomenon has been established through cross-breeding attempts and genetic investigations in a large number of organisms, so that previous subspecies have to be taxonomically assigned to new species. Cryptospecies can be found in both the plant and animal kingdoms , often e.g. B. in insects like Drosophila or Anopheles maculipennis , the European mosquitoes . The discovery that the species maculipennis actually comprises a group of six cryptospecies is of great importance because some transmit the malaria pathogen and others do not.

In contrast, many closely related bird , reptile and mammal species are outwardly very similar, but a distinction according to morphological characteristics is at least possible. Then one uses the synonymous term twin species, which is often used synonymously .

See also

swell

  • Kai Larsen: Cryptospecies in Lathyrus pratensis. In: Botanisk Tidsskrift. Vol. 53, 1957, ISSN  0006-8187 , pp. 291-294.
  • Helga Winge: Interspecific hybridization between the six cryptic species of Drosophila willistoni group. In: Heredity. Vol. 20, 1965, ISSN  0018-067X , pp. 9-19, online (PDF; 179 kB) .
  • Yuichi Kameda, Atsushi Kawakita, Makoto Kato: Cryptic genetic divergence and associated morphological differentiation in the arboreal land snail Satsuma (Luchuhadra) largillierti (Camaenidae) endemic to the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan. In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Vol. 45, 2007, ISSN  1055-7903 , pp. 519-533, doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2007.03.021 .
  • Leila M. Porter, Paul A. Garber: Niche expansion of a cryptic primate, Callimico goeldii, while in mixed species troops. In: American Journal of Primatology. Vol. 69, 2007, ISSN  0275-2565 , pp. 1340-1353, PMID 17486597 .
  • Markus Pfenninger, Sid Staubach, Christian Albrecht, Bruno Streit , Klaus Schwenk: Ecological and morphological differentiation among cryptic evolutionary lineages in freshwater limpets of the nominal form-group Ancylus fluviatilis (OF Müller, 1774). In: Molecular Ecology. Vol. 12, 2003, ISSN  0962-1083 , pp. 2731-2745. doi : 10.1046 / j.1365-294X.2003.01943.x

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Douglas J. Futuyma : Evolution. Elsevier, Spektrum, Akademischer Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8274-1816-6 , p. 356.