Morphological and genetic analyses identify a new record of a glacial relict: pygmy whitefish (Prosopium coulterii) from northwestern Ontario

摘要

The pygmy whitefish (Prosopium coulterii (Eigenmann and Eigenmann, 1892)) is a glacial relict species with a disjunct North American distribution that, apart from its most easterly known location in Lake Superior, is predominantly found in northern and western regions of Canada. Here we report on a new finding of pygmy whitefish from Winnange Lake in northwestern Ontario that extends the range of this species similar to 320 km from its most easterly distribution in Lake Superior and almost 1500 km east of the closest previously known western localities. Genetic analyses confirmed that the fish from Winnange Lake were most closely related to the lineage that includes fish from Lake Superior and likely also originated via postglacial dispersal from a refugium in the upper Mississippi - Missouri river system.