Evaluating Intraspecific Variation and Interspecific Diversity: comparing humans and fish species

TL;DR

This study compares molecular and morphological variation in humans and electric fish to understand intraspecific diversity and interspecific differences, revealing limited human variation but significant taxonomic distinctions in fish.

Contribution

It introduces a comparative framework analyzing molecular and morphological data across species, highlighting taxonomic relevance of traits in both humans and fish.

Findings

Humans show little molecular variation across regions.

Neanderthals are genetically distinct but potentially interbreed with modern humans.

Fish species exhibit clear morphological differences relevant for taxonomy.

Abstract

The analysis of eight molecular datasets involving human and teleost examples along with morphological samples from several groups of Neotropical electric fish (Order: Gymnotiformes) were used in this thesis to test the dynamics of both intraspecific variation and interspecific diversity. In terms of investigating molecular interspecific diversity among humans, two experimental exercises were performed. A cladistic exchange experiment tested for the extent of discontinuity and interbreeding between H. sapiens and neanderthal populations. As part of the same question, another experimental exercise tested the amount of molecular variance resulting from simulations which treated neanderthals as being either a local population of modern humans or as a distinct subspecies. Finally, comparisons of hominid populations over time with fish species helped to define what constitutes taxonomically relevant differences between morphological populations as expressed among both trait size ranges and through growth patterns that begin during ontogeny. Compared to the subdivision found within selected teleost species, H. sapiens molecular data exhibited little variation and discontinuity between geographical regions. Results of the two experimental exercises concluded that neanderthals exhibit taxonomic distance from modern H. sapiens. However, this distance was not so great as to exclude the possibility of interbreeding between the two subspecific groups. Finally, a series of characters were analyzed among species of Neotropical electric fish. These analyses were compared with hominid examples to determine what constituted taxonomically relevant differences between populations as expressed among specific morphometric traits that develop during the juvenile phase.