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Ongoing Phenotypic and Genotypic Diversification in Adaptively Radiated Freshwater Crabs from Jamaica

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Evolution in Action

Abstract

The Caribbean island of Jamaica is home to a lineage of crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Sesarmidae) which have colonized the most unusual terrestrial habitats. Today, they can be found nesting in bromeliad leaf axils or empty snail shells, scurrying on the forest floor or among dry rock rubble, climbing on walls of deep cave systems, or digging burrows in the banks of mountain streams. In order to facilitate survival of their offspring in these remarkable and new habitats, complex behavioral adaptations have evolved, including feeding and protecting the offspring, and transport of empty snail shells into the nursery to buffer the pH and provide the necessary calcium carbonate [summarized in Diesel (Proc Roy Soc Lond B 264:1403–1406, 1997), Diesel and Schubart (Evolutionary ecology of social and sexual systems: crustaceans as model organisms. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 365–386, 2007)]. No other American sesarmid crab species shows this degree of terrestriality and elaborate brood care behavior. Instead, the most related species typically are inhabitants of marshes and mangroves and reproduce by releasing their larvae into the ocean, without any additional paternal obligation. Molecular phylogenetic analyses revealed that the Jamaican endemic sesarmids are monophyletic and thus the outcome of a single colonization event, which took place approximately 4.5 million years ago and was followed by a rapid radiation, speciation, and adaptation to ecological niches, which have not been used by crabs in any other parts of the world and required evolution of complex behavioral strategies to render survival in these habitats possible (Schubart et al. Nature 393:363–365, 1998a). This system can be considered a classic example of an adaptive radiation of comparatively young age. It calls for research concerning the mechanisms and the pace of evolution to generate these highly specialized forms. In the present paper, we provide new data on evolutionary processes at the intraspecific level, which may help to understand the potential of diversification in these crabs. Furthermore, published and unpublished data available for these specialized crabs are summarized, giving evidence for the astounding diversity of evolutionary strategies and the dimension of biodiversity beyond the species level.

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Acknowledgements

The first author is especially grateful to his former advisor Rudi Diesel who introduced him to the world of the Jamaican crabs and contributed decisively to this manuscript with many early discussions and collecting trips. We would also like to thank all the other people who helped collect in the field over the years, among them Jens Reimer, Gernot Bäurle, Martina Schuh, Gary Rosenberg, Rene Brodie, Klaus Anger, Silke Reuschel, and Luise Heine, as well as the Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory and the University of the West Indies for continuing support. Special thanks are also due to the team of the Crandall Laboratory, who supported two of us, while cloning a maximum of ITS alleles in relatively short time intervals and associated support from the US National Science Foundation (EF-0531762). This study was financially supported by research project Schu 1460/3 to CDS within the DFG Priority Program 1127 “Adaptive Radiation-Origin of Biological Diversity”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biologie 1, Institut für Zoologie, Universität Regensburg, 93040, Regensburg, Germany

    Christoph D. Schubart, Tobias Weil, Jesper T. Stenderup & Tobias Santl

  2. Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350, København, Denmark

    Jesper T. Stenderup

  3. Department of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, 84602-5255, USA

    Keith A. Crandall

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  1. Christoph D. Schubart
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  2. Tobias Weil
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  4. Keith A. Crandall
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Correspondence to Christoph D. Schubart .

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  1. Museum für Naturkunde, Humboldt Universität Berlin, Invalidenstraße 43, Berlin, 10115, Germany

    Matthias Glaubrecht

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Schubart, C.D., Weil, T., Stenderup, J.T., Crandall, K.A., Santl, T. (2010). Ongoing Phenotypic and Genotypic Diversification in Adaptively Radiated Freshwater Crabs from Jamaica. In: Glaubrecht, M. (eds) Evolution in Action. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12425-9_16

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