DOI

The reality of spatial clinal variation in morphological traits of freshwater pulmonate snails (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) has repeatedly been questioned or totally discounted. There is a lack of sound statistical evidence in the articles hitherto published on this subject supporting these claims. Here, by means of different analytical methods (analysis of spatial autocorrelation, linear regression analysis, canonical correlation analysis and others), we demonstrate that shell variation in the dwarf pond snail, Galba truncatula, is patterned in space throughout the northern and central Palearctic, with latitudinally-oriented clines in body size and in some shell proportions. Shell size in G. truncatula decreases with latitude and temperature, representing a special case of converse Bergmann cline. However, the temperature itself is hardly the main driver of shell size variation. It is argued that the shorter growing seasons at high latitudes may represent a better explanation for the observed trend. Shell proportions in the dwarf pond snails vary weakly at the macrogeographic scale, being spatially patterned at lower (mesogeographic) scales around 1200–1500 km. In general, spatial variation in G. truncatula shell size is decoupled from variation in shell shape, demonstrating clear scale-dependence similar to that found in different species of terrestrial (non-aquatic) pulmonate snails.
Язык оригиналаанглийский
Страницы (с-по)159-170
Число страниц12
ЖурналMolluscan Research
Том39
Номер выпуска2
Дата раннего онлайн-доступа19 авг 2018
DOI
СостояниеОпубликовано - 3 апр 2019

    Предметные области Scopus

  • Генетика
  • Экология, эволюция поведение и систематика
  • Зоология и животноводство

ID: 28354089