Chloroscombrus chrysurus (Linnaeus, 1766) (Perciformes: Carangidae): a species complex?

Abstract

Brazil holds the greatest biological diversity on the planet, accounting for 10% to 20% of the total number of species in the world. Much of this diversity is distributed in terrestrial biomes, but very little is known about the areas of endemism of marine biodiversity in Brazil. The Carangidae family consists of about 150 species, belonging to 30 genera, distributed in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. The pompano, Chloroscombrus chrysurus (Linnaeus, 1766), is a species of teleost fish of the order Perciformes, family Carangidae, with pelagic-demersal habits that is distributed in the Western Atlantic from Massachusetts (USA) to Argentina and in the Eastern Atlantic from Spain to Angola. The DNA Barcode (DNA barcoding) is a methodology developed for the identification of species from samples of genetic material. A preliminary analysis of 29 samples with sequences available in public databases shows that there are 3 lineages in this species, two of which are found in Brazil. The present project intends to test the hypothesis that the two strains of C. chrysurus found in Brazil correspond to two species and to verify their degree of isolation through the analysis of DNA barcoding and the morphology, morphometric and meristic characters of voucher samples collected in Brazil, from Amapá to Santa Catarina.