Origin, diversification and conservation status of talus snails in the Pinale ˜ no Mountains: a conservation biogeographic study K. F. Weaver 1 , P. F. Weaver 1 & R. Guralnick 2 1 Department of Biology, University of La Verne, St. La Verne, CA, USA 2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder, CO, USA Keywords land snail biogeography; Pinale ˜ no Mountains; sky islands; Sonorella christenseni; S. grahamensis; S. imitator; S. macrophallus; talus snails. Correspondence Kathleen Weaver, Department of Biology, University of La Verne, 1950 3rd St. La Verne, CA 91750, USA. Email: kweaver@ulv.edu Received 31 July 2009; accepted 24 November 2009 doi:10.1111/j.1469-1795.2009.00341.x Abstract For many taxa, determining conservation status and priority is impeded by lack of adequate taxonomic and range data. For these problematic groups, we propose combining molecular techniques with careful geographic sampling to evaluate the validity, extent and phylogenetic relatedness of the proposed units of diversity. We employed such a strategy to document monophyletic lineages, range extents and phylogenetic relatedness for talus snails (genus Sonorella) in the Pinale˜no Moun- tains of Arizona, an isolated range that has the most vertical relief of any of the sky islands in Arizona. Three of the four species found in the Pinale ˜no Mountains have been considered candidate species for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Further, one of these taxa, Sonorella macrophallus, is of particular concern and was protected under an USFS conservation agreement until 2004, due to its presumed endemicity to a narrow portion of one canyon. We collected a large dataset of 12S and COI mitochondrial DNA, and subsamples of reproductive morphology from specimens collected throughout the Pinale˜nos and from adja- cent ranges (e.g. the Huachucas, Chiricahuas and Santa Catalinas). We generated a phylogeny based on the mitochondrial data, and matched clades with named species utilizing reproductive morphology. Our results show that both S. macro- phallus and Sonorella imitator are relatively widespread across the Pinale ˜nos while Sonorella grahamensis and Sonorella christenseni are restricted to very small areas. These results dramatically change our previous knowledge about range extents, especially for S. macrophallus. Given these results, land managers may need to reassess the status of all four Sonorella species. Finally, all Sonorella species from the Pinale˜nos are more closely related to each other than to other taxa on other ranges. This result strongly suggests that diversification of the four Sonorella species in the Pinale ˜nosoccurred in situ. Introduction A key initial task in animal conservation is to delimit mono- phyletic lineages of organisms and determine the geographic extent of those lineages. Delimiting lineages is especially im- portant for many invertebrates groups where traditional alpha taxonomy has proven to be a poor representation of actual diversity (Emberton, 1995; Guralnick, 2005; Pfenninger, Cor- dellier & Streit, 2006; Weaver et al., 2008). Accurate range data is equally important because many initial animal conservation decisions are made based in part on the presumed geographical extent of occupancy of a lineage, which itself determines extent of habitat occupied (e.g. IUCN Red List Criteria). For groups where sampling has been sporadic and taxonomic expertise is limited, the distribution, and often presumed endemicity, is not always accurately known. One approach in groups where taxonomic identification is difficult and range extent has yet to be properly determined is to examine variation in presumed neutral genetic markers from multiple individuals sampled broadly across a region, including those populations thought to be of conservation concern (Weaver et al., 2008). The resulting phylogenetic analysis can not only help document lineages and range extents of those lineages, but can also provide useful information about past and current events that lead to lineage diversifications through an assessment of the amount of genetic differentiation among lineages (Sites & Crandall, 1997). Here we use such a strategy to examine two separate, but related questions regarding conservation and evolutionary diversification of talus snails (genus Sonorella) in isolated sky islands in the south-western US. The Madrean Sky Islands are a series of mountains rising up out of a sea of desert and grassland in south-western North America. Starting at lower elevations, the surrounding landscape of the Sonora and Chihuahua desert is dominated Animal Conservation 13 (2010) 306–314 c  2010 The Authors. Journal compilation c  2010 The Zoological Society of London 306 Animal Conservation. Print ISSN 1367-9430