Cryptic species and colonization processes in Ophryotrocha (Annelida, Dorvilleidae) inhabiting vertebrate remains in the shallow‐water Mediterranean

摘要: Over the past several years, there has been growing interest in how bones of decaying mammals are colonized marine seabed. One most common opportunistic taxa occurring worldwide on is dorvilleid polychaetes genus Ophryotrocha. In a recent study Mediterranean, Ophryotrocha puerilis and alborana were two abundant species experimentally deployed bones. These have direct development this makes them suitable model to mechanisms processes allowing organisms lacking dispersive larval phase colonize new substrates. Here, we address colonization at molecular level for populations O. puerilis O. alborana mammal shallow-water Mediterranean collected over year 3-month intervals. High genetic distances between some indicated occurrence least cryptic sibling (O. puerilis ‘Shallow’ ‘Deep’) apart from sensu stricto. This was corroborated with phylogenetic analyses using an alignment three concatenated genes (COI, 16S, H3) delimitation COI. The haplotype network inferred COI sequences showed few haplotypes shared trimesters analysed other less represented only present one trimester. Thus, these experimental may achieved by that arrived able reseed, individuals arriving not persisting across time. contrast, revealed none different shared, suggesting during each trimester totally replaced subsequent trimesters. Our suggests patterns substrate despite sharing similar life histories.