We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Premature refutation of a human-mediated marine species introduction: the case history of the marine snail Littorina littorea in the northwestern Atlantic.
- Authors
John Chapman; James Carlton; M. Bellinger; April Blakeslee
- Abstract
Abstract The European periwinkle snail, Littorina littorea was discovered in Pictou, NS, Canada in 1840. This snail’s subsequent rapid, conspicuous spread south from Pictou along the Canadian maritime coast and then along the New England and mid-Atlantic coast to New Jersey, its virtual absence in pre-European contact deposits, and its close association with human mechanisms of transport from Europe are among the clearest evidence for a human-mediated introduction. However, molecular genetic data have been proposed as evidence that L. littorea’s occurrence in North America was not the result of a human introduction by Wares et al. (Ecol Lett 5:577–584, 2002). Reexamination of these genetic data and reexamination of all other data available reveal that a human-mediated introduction of L. littorea is the simplest explanation of its occurrence in North America. The refutation of the human-mediated introduction of L. littorea was premature.
- Subjects
NORTH America; SNAILS; LITTORINA; LITTORINIDAE
- Publication
Biological Invasions, 2007, Vol 9, Issue 6, p737
- ISSN
1387-3547
- Publication type
Academic Journal
- DOI
10.1007/s10530-006-9073-x