Evidence of a human-mediated invasion of the tropical western Atlantic by the 'world's most common brittlestar'

Approximately three million years ago the Isthmus of Panama formed an impenetrable land barrier between the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean and the tropical western Atlantic Ocean. Since this time, isolated geminate species have evolved from once contiguous populations, either side of the barrier. One such organism whose distribution is divided by the Isthmus is the tropical brittlestar Ophiactis savignyi, once suggested to be the most common brittlestar in the world. Rather than showing a genetic pattern consistent with a history of isolation, we show that this species has recently dispersed between the Pacific Ocean and the western Atlantic Ocean. This conclusion is based upon a phylogenetic analysis using sequences of the COI mitochondrial DNA gene from these populations. Identical haplotypes between oceans, and a genetic signature of population expansion, provide compelling evidence that the western Atlantic contains at least one cluster of haplotypes recently derived from the Indo-Pacific. Inadvertent human-aided translocation of individuals, presumably in ballast water or fouling communities, is strongly implicated as a mechanism for dispersal between oceans. We believe that cryptic marine invasions are likely to be common and our awareness of them will rapidly increase as systematic and phylogeographic knowledge of marine taxa grow.