Phylogenetic relationships of a subset of Aphanius fish comprising central Anatolia,
Turkey, are investigated to test the hypothesis of geographic speciation driven by
early Pliocene orogenic events in spite of morphological similarity. We use 3434 aligned
base pairs of mitochondrial DNA from 42 samples representing 36 populations of three
species and six outgroup species to test this hypothesis. Genes analyzed include those
encoding the 12S and 16S ribosomal RNAs; transfer RNAs coding for valine, leucine,
isoleucine, glutamine, methionine, tryptophan, alanine, asparagine, cysteine, and
tyrosine; and complete NADH dehydrogenase subunits I and II. Distance based minimum
evolution and maximum-likelihood analyses identify six well-supported clades consisting
of Aphanius danfordii, Aphanius sp. aff danfordii, and four clades of Aphanius anatoliae.
Parsimony analysis results in 462 equally parsimonious trees, all of which contain
the six well supported clades identified in the other analyses. Our phylogenetic results
are supported by hybridization studies (Villwock, 1964), and by the geological history
of Anatolia. Phylogenetic relationships among the six clades are only weakly supported,
however, and differ among analytical methods. We therefore test and subsequently reject
the hypothesis of simultaneous diversification among the six central Anatolian clades.
However, our analyses do not identify any internodes that are significantly better
supported than expected by chance alone. Therefore, although bifurcating branching
order is hypothesized to underlie this radiation, the exact branching order is difficult
to estimate with confidence.