Comparative phylogeography of three codistributed stomatopods: origins and timing of regional lineage diversification in the Coral Triangle.

The Indonesian-Australian Archipelago is the center of the world's marine biodiversity. Although many biogeographers have suggested that this region is a "center of origin," criticism of this theory has focused on the absence of processes promoting lineage diversification in the center. In this study we compare patterns of phylogeographic structure and gene flow in three codistributed, ecologically similar Indo-West Pacific stomatopod (mantis shrimp) species. All three taxa show evidence for limited gene flow across the Maluku Sea with deep genetic breaks between populations from Papua and Northern Indonesia, suggesting that limited water transport across the Maluku Sea may limit larval dispersal and gene flow across this region. All three taxa also show moderate to strong genetic structure between populations from Northern and Southern Indonesia, indicating limited gene flow across the Flores and Java Seas. Despite the similarities in phylogeographic structure, results indicate varied ages of the genetic discontinuities, ranging from the middle Pleistocene to the Pliocene. Concordance of genetic structure across multiple taxa combined with temporal discordance suggests that regional genetic structures have arisen from the action of common physical processes operating over extended time periods. The presence in all three species of both intraspecific genetic structure as well as deeply divergent lineages that likely represent cryptic species suggests that these processes may promote lineage diversification within the Indonesian-Australian Archipelago, providing a potential mechanism for the center of origin. Efforts to conserve biodiversity in the Coral Triangle should work to preserve both existing biodiversity as well as the processes creating the biodiversity.