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Evidence of a landlocked reproducing population of the marine pejerrey Odontesthes argentinensis (Actinopterygii; Atherinopsidae)

2019; Wiley; Volume: 96; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/jfb.14207

1095-8649

Darío César Colautti, Leandro A. Miranda, Mariano González-Castro, Gabriela Vanina Villanova, Carlos Augusto Strüssmann, Miguel Mancini, Tomás Maiztegui, Gustavo E. Berasain, Ricardo Shohei Hattori, Fabián Grosman, Pablo Sanzano, Ismael E. Lozano, Sabina Llamazares Vegh, Víctor Salinas, Omar Del Ponti, Pamela del Fresno, Priscila Minotti, Yoji Yamamoto, Claudio Baigún,

Fish biology, ecology, and behavior

In South America, the order Atheriniformes includes the monophyletic genus Odontesthes with 20 species that inhabit freshwater, estuarine and coastal environments. Pejerrey Odontesthes argentinensis is widely distributed in coastal and estuarine areas of the Atlantic Ocean and is known to foray into estuaries of river systems, particularly in conditions of elevated salinity. However, to our knowledge, a landlocked self-sustaining population has never been recorded. In this study, we examined the pejerrey population of Salada de Pedro Luro Lake (south-east of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) to clarify its taxonomic identity. An integrative taxonomic analysis based on traditional meristic, landmark-based morphometrics and genetic techniques suggests that the Salada de Pedro Luro pejerrey population represents a novel case of physiological and morphological adaptation of a marine pejerrey species to a landlocked environment and emphasises the environmental plasticity of this group of fishes.