ORIGINAL PAPER The occurrence of Sparisoma frondosum (Teleostei: Labridae) in the Cape Verde Archipelago, with a summary of expatriated Brazilian endemic reef fishes Rui Freitas & Osmar J. Luiz & Pericles N. Silva & Sergio R. Floeter & Giacomo Bernardi & Carlos E. L. Ferreira Received: 31 January 2013 /Revised: 19 November 2013 /Accepted: 19 November 2013 /Published online: 21 February 2014 # Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract The occurrence of the Brazilian endemic parrotfish Sparisoma frondosum is confirmed for the Cape Verde Archi- pelago, in the Tropical Eastern Atlantic. In total, 12 species of reef fishes previously thought to be either endemic or originat- ed in the Brazilian Province have been recently recorded as vagrants in the southern Caribbean and in West African off- shore islands. We suggest that the seasonal and somewhat overlooked North Equatorial Countercurrent should receive more attention as a potential dispersal route for marine organ- isms crossing the Atlantic in a west–east direction. Keywords Dispersal . Biogeography . New record . Trans-Atlantic . North Atlantic countercurrent Introduction Dispersal, defined as the movement and subsequent reproduc- tion of organisms from one area to another, is fundamental to the shaping of patterns of diversity and composition of species within communities (Vellend 2010). The movement of organ- isms among populations is an important process that promotes species survivorship. For example, dispersal enhances genetic connectivity, which provides a way of escaping local environ- mental changes and facilitates the exploitation of resource pulses (Nathan et al. 2008). Moreover, dispersal enhances the probability of geographic range expansion, eventually giving rise to sibling species if genetic isolation is maintained (Hodge et al. 2012). Although species’ distribution ranges are established during a long evolutionary history and shaped by ecological and physical barriers, events of individuals dispers- ing out of an established distribution are not exceptional, especially in the marine realm (Gaines et al. 2009). In fact, as the configuration of oceans and continents changes through time, invasions became an expected and widespread process (Vermeij 1991, 2005). In the Atlantic Ocean, several biogeographic provinces were defined using endemism levels of reef fish species, which are maintained by oceanographic barriers to dispersal (Floeter et al. 2008). However, those barriers are variable in their effectiveness during geologic time (Rocha 2003) and affect different subsets of species depending on their biological R. Freitas Departamento de Engenharias e Ciências do Mar, Universidade de Cabo Verde, CP 163 Mindelo, Cabo Verde O. J. Luiz Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia P. N. Silva Instituto Nacional de Desenvolvimento das Pescas, CP 132 Mindelo, Cabo Verde S. R. Floeter Departamento de Ecologia e Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC 88010-970, Brazil G. Bernardi Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA C. E. L. Ferreira (*) Departamento de Biologia Marinha, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, RJ 24001-970, Brazil e-mail: carlosferreira@id.uff.br R. Freitas Departamento de Ecologia Y Biologia Animal, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad de Vigo, 36310 Vigo, Pontevedra, Spain Mar Biodiv (2014) 44:173–179 DOI 10.1007/s12526-013-0194-z