Data from: Extensive sympatry, cryptic diversity and introgression throughout the geographic distribution of two coral species complexes

The identification of species is one of the most basic, and yet critically
important, issues in biology with far-reaching potential implications for
fields such as biodiversity conservation, population ecology and
epidemiology. Morphology has long been the primary tool biologists have
used to categorize life. However, we now know that a significant portion
of natural diversity is morphologically hidden, and therefore, we must
integrate non-morphological tools into the description of biodiversity.
Here, we demonstrate the utility of multi-locus population genetic data
for identifying and characterizing cryptic species complexes, even when
species share large amounts of genetic variability. Specifically, we have
used DNA sequence data from 12 genomic regions to characterize two
widespread species complexes in the coral genus Acropora: A. cytherea and
A. hyacinthus. These two morphospecies have each been sampled from 5-7
locations throughout their Indo-Pacific distributions, and with the use of
structure and hierarchical clustering, we demonstrate the presence of at
least six widespread, cryptic species within these two morphospecies
complexes. After identifying cryptic lineages, we then utilize the genetic
data to examine the history of introgressive hybridization within and
between these morphospecies complexes. Our data indicate that these two
complexes form a global syngameon with consistent patterns of
introgression between species across large geographic distributions.