Mollusc studies

A growing body of evidence shows that speciation in the marine realm often occurs in allopatry driven by specialization into tropical/temperate and eutrophic/oligotrophic gradients, but the nudibranch genus Hypselodoris in the Atlantic challenge this view with at least 8 sympatric species belonging to the so called “blue-complex group”, which are all morphologically and chromatically extremely similar. The main objectives of this project are to produce a molecular phylogeny of the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific species of the genus Hypselodoris, and to understand the patterns and processes of speciation within the “blue-complex” species.

Foto: Manuel Malaquias