Diversity of early life-history traits in freshwater eels and the evolution of their oceanic migrations

Abstract

Early life-history traits of all 19 anguillid eel species and subspecies were examined to help understand the evolutionary processes of their oceanic migrations in comparison with their migration distances and the geography of their species ranges. Tropical species were found to have fewer myomeres, greater body depths, higher growth rates, shorter larval durations, and smaller maximum larval sizes than temperate species. The relationships among larval characteristics such as growth rate, age at metamorphosis, and maximum larval size differed among tropical and temperate species and corresponded with the maximum latitudes of their species ranges. Temperate eel leptocephali with slow growth and large maximum size with slender bodies appear to be specialized for long migrations and dispersal over a wide range of distances to higher latitudes, while having flexible sizes of metamorphosis and recruitment. Tropical species with faster growth metamorphose earlier at a relatively fixed size, which would facilitate larval retention near their species ranges at low latitudes. Changes in the early life-history traits of tropical eels appear to have occurred during the evolution of longer migrations as they entered temperate regions.