STATUS IF ANADARA TRAPEZIA (DESHAYES) (BIVALVIA ARCOIDA) FROM OYSTER HARBOUR, ALBANY (WESTERN AUSTRALIA) AS COMPARED WITH EAST AUSTRALIAN POPULATIONS

WA Museum Records and Supplements | Updated 1 decade ago

Abstract - A study of allozymes of the arcoid Anadara trapezia was carried out to estimate the degree of divergence associated with the temporal and geographical isolation of the southwestern Australian population from the east Australian population. A survey of electrophoretic variation at 27 putative loci coding for enzymes revealed no evidence of divergence or speciation of the Western Australian population. At all surveyed loci in all sample sets, the same most common alleles were found. Questions are raised regarding the geological time of separation of those populations. Could the time span have been more recent than paleogeological records suggest or is this species made up of a set of well adapted gene complexes that have been stable for thousands of years?