Geographic and temporal dynamics of a global radiation and diversification in the killer whale

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  • Phillip A Morin
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, La Jolla, California
  • Kim M Parsons
    NOAA, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle
  • Frederick I Archer
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, La Jolla, California
  • María C Ávila-Arcos
    University of Copenhagen
  • Lance G Barrett-Lennard
    Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre
  • Luciano Dalla Rosa
    Federal University of Rio Grande
  • Sebastián Duchêne
    University of Sydney
  • John W Durban
    NOAA, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle
  • Graeme M Ellis
    Fisheries and Oceans Canada
  • Steven H Ferguson
    Fisheries and Oceans Canada
  • John K Ford
    Fisheries and Oceans Canada
  • Michael J Ford
    NOAA Fisheries, USA
  • Cristina Garilao
    GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung, Kiel
  • M. Thomas P. Gilbert
    Curtin University, Perth
  • Kristin Kaschner
    University of Freiburg
  • Craig O Matkin
    North Gulf Oceanic Society
  • Stephen D Petersen
    Assiniboine Park Zoo, Manitoba
  • Kelly M Robertson
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, La Jolla, California
  • Ingrid N Visser
    Orca Research Trust, Tutukaka
  • Paul R Wade
    NOAA, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle
  • Simon Y W Ho
    University of Sydney
  • Andrew D Foote
    University of CopenhagenUppsala University

Global climate change during the Late Pleistocene periodically encroached and then released habitat during the glacial cycles, causing range expansions and contractions in some species. These dynamics have played a major role in geographic radiations, diversification and speciation. We investigate these dynamics in the most widely distributed of marine mammals, the killer whale (Orcinus orca), using a global data set of over 450 samples. This marine top predator inhabits coastal and pelagic ecosystems ranging from the ice edge to the tropics, often exhibiting ecological, behavioural and morphological variation suggestive of local adaptation accompanied by reproductive isolation. Results suggest a rapid global radiation occurred over the last 350 000 years. Based on habitat models, we estimated there was only a 15% global contraction of core suitable habitat during the last glacial maximum, and the resources appeared to sustain a constant global effective female population size throughout the Late Pleistocene. Reconstruction of the ancestral phylogeography highlighted the high mobility of this species, identifying 22 strongly supported long-range dispersal events including interoceanic and interhemispheric movement. Despite this propensity for geographic dispersal, the increased sampling of this study uncovered very few potential examples of ancestral dispersal among ecotypes. Concordance of nuclear and mitochondrial data further confirms genetic cohesiveness, with little or no current gene flow among sympatric ecotypes. Taken as a whole, our data suggest that the glacial cycles influenced local populations in different ways, with no clear global pattern, but with secondary contact among lineages following long-range dispersal as a potential mechanism driving ecological diversification.

Keywords

  • Animals, Bayes Theorem, Biological Evolution, Cell Nucleus/genetics, Climate Change, DNA, Mitochondrial/genetics, Ecosystem, Ecotype, Genetic Variation, Models, Theoretical, Molecular Sequence Data, Phylogeny, Phylogeography, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Population Dynamics, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Whale, Killer/genetics
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3964-79
Number of pages16
JournalMolecular Ecology
Volume24
Issue number15
Early online date19 Jun 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2015
Externally publishedYes
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