Paul Z. Goldstein

Paul Z. Goldstein

Abstract

Recent Character Fixation in the Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle: Implications for the Phylogenetic Species Criterion

Implications of the phylogenetic species criterion are explored using a reductio ad absurdum involving the recent fixation of a single base pair in a population of the federally threatened Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle Cicindela dorsalis dorsalis (Coleoptera: Carabidae), formerly distributed more or less continuously along the Atlantic coastline. Earlier studies have demonstrated the diagnosibility of New England's remaining populations via a single base pair in the mitochondrial COIII gene. In this study, "ancient" DNA was extracted from museum specimens collected from throughout the species' former range. It shows that the diagnosibility of the extant Massachusetts populations is the result of character fixation, due in part to the extirpation of populations between New England and the Chesapeake Bay, i.e. the recent extinction of polymorphism at the site in question. The notion of speciation as the evolution of reproductive isolation is compared to the idea of species delimitation—with the aim of recovering phylogenetic history—through the identification of diagnosable groups of organisms.

Biography

Paul Goldstein received his B.A. in biology from Harvard University and his Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Connecticut. He completed his dissertation on the evolution of host plant associations in the endophagous moth genus Papaipema in the molecular laboratory at the American Museum of Natural History. In addition to his evolutionary studies, he has worked in a variety of conservation programs, particularly in New England, where he helped pioneer the use of invertebrate assemblages in characterizing threatened habitats, identifying their management needs, and informing regional priorities for protection.

Relevant Publications

Goldstein, P.Z. and C.D. Specht. 1998. Pitfalls in phylogenetic analysis of large molecular data sets. Pages 253-274 In: R. DeSalle, B. Shierwater, and B. Streitand (eds.), Molecular Ecology and Evolution: Approaches and Applications. Birkhauser Verlag, Switzerland.

Goldstein, P.Z., R. DeSalle, G. Amato, and A. Vogler. 2000. Conservation genetics at the species boundary Conservation Biology 14: 120-131.

Goldstein, P.Z. and DeSalle, R. 2000. Phylogenetic species, nested hierarchies, and character fixation. Cladistics 16: 364-384.

Goldstein, P.Z. and Brower, A.V.Z. In press. Molecular systematics and the origin of species: New syntheses or methodological introgressions? In R. DeSalle, G. Giribet, and W. Wheeler (eds.), Molecular Systematics and Evolution: Theory and Practice. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag.

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