Isthmian Pairs (IMAGE)

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Isthmian Pairs

Caption

Split by the Isthmus of Panama: Species of butterfly fish, sand dollar and cone snail that today live on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Central America are very closely related. Genetic sequencing shows that only 4 to 3 million years ago, each pair was a single species, demonstrating that marine connections between the oceans must have existed until that time.

Credit

Simon Coppard, Alexander Medvedev, Ross Robertson, Shellnut, Bob Fenner

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Credit: STRI

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