Ryan A Ellingson

University of California, Los Angeles | UCLA · Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Phidiana hiltoni is a conspicuous nudibranch sea slug native to the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Over the past thirty years the range of P. hiltoni has expanded about 200 km northward, but the mechanism that facilitated this expansion is poorly understood. In this study, we use mtDNA and microsatellite data to investigate the population structure of...

Predicting biotic resistance to highly invasive strains of "killer algae" (Caulerpa spp.) requires understanding the diversity and feeding preferences of native consumers, including sea slugs in family Oxynoidae. Past studies reported low algal host specificity for Oxynoe (6 spp.) and Lobiger (4 spp.), but these taxonomically challenging slugs may...

Plate tectonics and sediment processes control regional continental shelf topography. We examine the genetic consequences of how glacial-associated sea-level change interacted with variable near-shore topography since the last glaciation. We reconstructed the size and distribution of areas suitable for tidal estuary formation from the Last Glacial...

Chendytes lawi, an extinct flightless diving anseriform from coastal California, was traditionally classified as a sea duck, tribe Mergini, based on similarities in osteological characters. We recover and analyze mitochondrial genomes of C. lawi and five additional Mergini species, including the extinct Labrador Duck, Camptorhyncus labradorius. Des...

Electronic Supplementary Material (ESM) for Dolby et al 2016

Using a novel combination of palaeohabitat modelling and genetic mixture analyses, we identify and assess a sea-level-driven recolonization process following the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Our palaeohabitat modelling reveals dramatic changes in estuarine habitat distribution along the coast of California (USA) and Baja California (Mexico). At the...

A geographically isolated set of southern localities of the formerly monotypic goby genus Eucyclogobius is known to be reciprocally monophyletic and substantially divergent in mito-chondrial sequence and nuclear microsatellite-based phylogenies relative to populations to the north along the California coast. To clarify taxonomic and conservation st...

Locality information used in mapping. These data are mapped in Fig 6, and S1–S3 Figs. (DOCX)

Synonymy and Valid Literature References. (DOCX)

Distribution of E. newberryi from Santa Cruz County to North Santa Barbara County. See S1 Text for mapped data. (TIF)

Size adjusted data for discriminant analyses. (XLSX)

Distribution of E. newberryi in del Norte and Humboldt Counties. See S1 Text for mapped data. (TIF)

Distribution of E. newberryi from Mendocino County to San Mateo County. See S1 Text for mapped data. (TIF)

Measures and counts used in analyses. (XLSX)

Fin ray and vertebral counts from both species of Eucyclogobius. (XLSX)

Free neuromast and shoulder papillae counts from both species of Eucyclogobius. See Fig 2 for location of lines of neuromasts. (XLSX)

Background: The Bocas del Toro Archipelago is located off the Caribbean coast of Panama. Until now, only 19 species of heterobranch sea slugs have been formally reported from this area; this number constitutes a fraction of total diversity in the Caribbean region. Results: Based on newly conducted fieldwork, we increase the number of recorded hete...

The endangered closed-estuary specialist goby genus Eucyclogobius, the tidewater gobies, is the most locally-differentiated vertebrate taxon on the Pacific coast. It is subdivided into regional clades, which are further subdivided into long-isolated entities. Clades and subclades exhibit regionally distinct metapopulation processes. In addition, th...

Population-level consequences of dispersal ability remain poorly understood, especially for marine animals in which dispersal is typically considered a species-level trait governed by oceanographic transport of microscopic larvae. Transitions from dispersive (planktotrophic) to non-dispersive, aplanktonic larvae are predicted to reduce connectivity...

For 40 years, paleontological studies of marine gastropods have suggested that species selection favors lineages with short-lived (lecithotrophic) larvae, which are less dispersive than long-lived (planktotrophic) larvae. Although lecithotrophs appeared to speciate more often and accumulate over time in some groups, lecithotrophy also increased ext...

North Pacific "bay gobies" are phylogenetically subdivided East/West across the Pacific-ecological distinction relating to infaunality evolved in parallel on both coasts. In the17 primarily estuarine eastern Pacific species, diversity is high on the California Coast and higher still in the Gulf of California. Bay Goby species prefer discrete types...

The primarily estuarine North Pacific "bay gobies" include approximately 17 eastern Pacific temperate and subtropical species. Diversity is high on the California Coast and higher still in the Gulf of California. These species prefer discrete types of estuarine habitat. The federally endangered tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi) is exclusive...

Much work has focused on determining when the Gulf of California formed, which has been complicated by conflicting lines of geological evidence. The "proto-Gulf" scenario based on microfossil evidence outlines a mid-Miocene (ca. 11.6 Ma) marine setting in the present-day northern Gulf. Conversely, geochronological and tectonic evidence supports a "...

The North Pacific "bay gobies" (Gobiidae: Gobionellinae) include approximately 17 eastern Pacific temperate and subtropical largely estuarine species with the greatest diversity found from California to the Gulf of California. These species prefer discrete types of estuarine habitat. The federally endangered tidewater goby, Eucyclogobius newberryi,...

Substantial genetic and subtle morphological characters document that the Delta Mudsucker or chupalodo delta, Gillichthys detrusus Gilbert and Scofield, 1898, family Gobiidae, is a valid species separate from its widespread sister species, the Longjaw Mudsucker, G. mirabilis Cooper, 1864. This species was erroneously placed in the synonymy of G. mi...

Cryptic species are increasingly recognized as commonplace among marine gastropods, especially in taxa such as shell-less opisthobranchs that lack many discrete taxonomic characters. Most cases of poe-cilogony, the presence of variable larval development within a single species, have historically turned out to represent cryptic species, with each p...

Poecilogony, a rare phenomenon in marine invertebrates, occurs when alternative larval morphs differing in dispersal potential or trophic mode are produced from a single genome. Because both poecilogony and cryptic species are prevalent among sea slugs in the suborder Sacoglossa (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia), molecular data are needed to confirm ca...