Comparative phylogeography and landscape evolution in two freshwater crustaceans distributed across northern Australia

Title: ‘Comparative phylogeography and landscape evolution in two freshwater crustaceans distributed across northern Australia’
Author:     Dr. Peter B. Mather
School of Natural Resource Sciences
Queensland University of Technology
2 George St
GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, 4001, Australia
<p.mather@qut.edu.au
Abstract:
Patterns of molecular diversity in two key species of endemic freshwater crustaceans (Giant Freshwater Prawn and Redclaw crayfish) were assessed in major river drainages across northern Australia. Diversity was high both, within and among drainages, with both species showing essentially similar patterns of population structure with multiple divergent clades co-distributed geographically across northern Australia. A major phylogeographical break was evident in the south-west corner of the Gulf of Carpenteria in Redclaw crayfish, the more freshwater-dependent species, with close affinities evident between eastern and western Australian clades closely aligned to reference populations collected in eastern and western regions of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The geographical patterns of diversity and their inferred timing, suggest that historical climatic fluctuations that affected sea levels (eustasy) and associated periodical land bridge connections between Australia and PNG together with periodical formulation of a large freshwater/brackishwater lake in the Gulf of Carpenteria region of north-eastern Australian may have played a significant role in shaping the evolution of freshwater taxa across northern Australia.