Physella wrighti

Abstract: The evolutionary origins of Physella johnsoni and Physella wrighti, freshwater snails endemic to thermal springs in Alberta and British Columbia, were examined by sequence comparisons of mitochondrial genes coding for segments of the large subunit ribosomal RNA (16S) and cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) with those in the closely allied species Physella gyrina. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on combined and separate analyses of the datasets identified P. wrighti as the sister taxon to a P. johnsoni + P. gyrina clade. For both gene regions there was little or no sequence variation among conspecific individuals, but a number of diagnostic differences existed between each of the species pairs. Tree topologies and estimates of sequence divergence indicate that the divergence events which separated the three species occurred rather recently and at relatively brief intervals, and it is likely that P. wrighti is the source of the ancestral population from which P. johnsoni and P. gyrina were derived. Our findings...