Atlantic Oceanic Squids in The “Grey Speciation Zone”

12 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, supplementary data https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icad116

Cryptic species complexes represent an important challenge for the adequate characterization of Earth's biodiversity. Oceanic organisms tend to have greater unrecognized cryptic biodiversity since the marine realm was often considered to lack hard barriers to genetic exchange. Here, we tested the effect of several Atlantic and Mediterranean oceanic barriers on 16 morphospecies of oceanic squids of the orders Oegopsida and Bathyteuthida using three mitochondrial and one nuclear molecular marker and five species delimitation methods. Number of species recognized within each morphospecies differed among different markers and analyses, but we found strong evidence of cryptic biodiversity in at least four of the studied species (Chtenopteryx sicula, Chtenopteryx canariensis, Ancistrocheirus lesueurii and Galiteuthis armata). There were highly geographically-structured units within Helicocranchia navossae that could either represent recently diverged species or population structure. Although the species studied here can be considered relatively passive with respect to oceanic currents, cryptic speciation patterns showed few signs of being related to oceanic currents. We hypothesize that bathymetry of the egg masses and duration of the paralarval stage might influence the geographic distribution of oceanic squids. Because the results of different markers and different species delimitation methods are inconsistent, and because molecular data encompassing broad geographic sampling areas for oceanic squids are scarce and finding morphological diagnostic characters for early life stages is difficult, it is challenging to assess the species boundaries for many of these species. Thus, we consider many to be in the “grey speciation zone.” As many oceanic squids have cosmopolitan distributions, new studies combining genomic and morphological information from specimens collected worldwide are needed to correctly assess actual oceanic squid biodiversity

Samples were collected as part of the research projects MAFIA (Ref. CTM2012-39587-C04-03, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, MINECO/FEDER/EU), BATHYPELAGIC (Ref. CTM2016-78853-R MINECO/FEDER/EU) and SUMMER (Ref. GA-817806, European Commission). FÁF-Á was supported by a JdC-I Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant (ref. IJC2020-043170-I) awarded by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by a Beatriu de Pinós fellowship from Secretaria d´Universitats i Recerca del Departament de Recerca i Universitats of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Ref. BP 2021 00035). GS was supported by the 22K15085 Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists (KAKENHI). MT was funded by a Tony Ryan Fellowship and Irish Research Council postgraduate scholarship GOIPG/2017/1740. This research was supported by the project ECOPHYN (Ref. PID2021-126824NB-C32, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Gobierno de España) and the European Union and the Spanish government through the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S)

Peer reviewed