The marine East Indies: diversity and speciation

The East Indies Triangle, a relatively small part of the IndoPacific Ocean, is unique in terms of its species diversity and evolutionary importance. Within this area (Fig. 1), the high species diversity of the major groups of marine organisms, such as the fishes, corals, echinoderms and molluscs, is almost unbelievable. Although species from the Triangle have been collected and described since the early part of the nineteenth century, new ones are being discovered every year. Biologists have done more work on the fishes than on any other group, yet they are still not well known. But one can now make a reasonably good prediction about the number of species that are there and can reach some general conclusions about their formation and geographical distribution. Species from the Triangle probably play a major role in the assemblage and maintenance of coral reef communities throughout the Indo-Pacific (Mora et al., 2003). The influence of such species is considered to be related to their mode of speciation. Georgia Museum of Natural History, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA