Search results for "vicariance"

Distribution, diversity patterns and faunogenesis of the millipedes (Diplopoda) of the Himalayas

2018

The Himalayas support a highly rich, diverse, multi-layered, mostly endemic diplopod fauna which presently contains >270 species, 53 genera, 23 families and 13 orders. This is the result of mixing the ancient, apparently Tertiary and younger, Plio-Pleistocene elements of various origins, as well as the most recent anthropochore (= man-mediated) introductions. At the species and, partly, generic levels, the fauna is largely autochthonous and sylvicolous, formed through aboundingin situradiation and vicariance events. In general, the species from large genera and families tend to occupy a wide range of altitudes, but nearly each of the constituent species shows a distribution highly lo…

Cracking the nut: Geographical adjacency of sister taxa supports vicariance in a polytomic salamander clade in the absence of node support

2008

The urodelan genus Lyciasalamandra, which inhabits a relatively small area along the southern Turkish coast and some Aegean islands, provides an outstanding example of a diverse but phylogenetically unresolved taxon. Molecular trees contain a single basal polytomy that could be either soft or hard. We here use the information of nuclear (allozymes) and mitochondrial (fractions of the 16S rRNA and ATPase genes) datasets in combination with area relationships of lineages to resolve the phylogenetic relationships among Lyciasalamandra species in the absence of sufficient node support. We can show that neither random processes nor introgressive hybridization can be invoked to explain that the m…

The phylogeny and biogeography of Gentiana L. sect. Ciminalis (Adans.) Dumort.: A historical interpretation of distribution ranges in the European hi…

1998

Abstract Gentiana sect. Ciminalis consists of seven mostly ecologically or geographically vicariant and closely related species which are distributed throughout the South and Central European high mountains. The analysis of a RAPD data set and trn L-intron and ITS sequences resulted in slightly different phylogenetic hypotheses. In the preferred hypothesis the group consists of two completely resolved main lineages: 1) G. clusii and G. alpina. 2) G. dinarica, G. acaulis, G. ligustica, G. angustifolia and G. occidentalis. The most important conclusions we have drawn from this phylogenetic hypothesis and from the observed patterns of molecular variation are: 1) The calcifuge ecology of G. aca…

Phylogenetic and biogeographical inferences for Pancratium (Amaryllidaceae), with an emphasis on the Mediterranean species based on plastid sequence …

2012

The phylogenetics and biogeography of Pancratium (Amaryllidaceae) were investigated, with a focus on the Mediterranean and adjacent areas, with the aim of contributing new information towards a better understanding of the evolutionary history of the genus and the taxonomic placement of P. linosae and P. hirtum. To address these questions, we sequenced four plastid DNA markers: the ndhF and rbcL genes, the trnL(UAA)-trnF(GAA) intergenic spacer and the trnL(UAA) intron, analysing them using parsimony, likelihood and Bayesian approaches. The results show that the relationships among the majority of the species are resolved; however, the relationships of one of the major clades of the genus are…

Climatic oscillations triggered post-Messinian speciation of Western Palearctic brown frogs (Amphibia, Anura, Ranidae)

2003

Abstract Oscillating glacial cycles over the past 2.4 million years are proposed to have had a major impact on the diversity of contemporary species communities. We used mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data to infer phylogenetic relationships within Western Palearctic brown frogs and to test the influence of Pliocene and Pleistocene climatic changes on their evolution. We sequenced 1976 bp of the mitochondrial genes 16S rRNA and cytochrome b and of the nuclear rhodopsin gene for all current species and subspecies. Based on an established allozyme clock for Western Palearctic water frogs and substitution rate constancy among water frogs and brown frogs, we calibrated a molecular clock…

Causes of the genetic architecture of south-west European high mountain disjuncts

2008

Background: Postglacial climatic warming in south-western Europe and the retreat of cold-adapted species into higher elevations, starting in the Sierra Nevada and proceeding northwards to the Pyrenees and Alps, should have resulted in a pattern of ‘successive vicariance’. Alternatively, long-distance dispersal might explain the extant distribution pattern of mountain species in this region. Aims: Here, we report an investigation of two alpine plants, Saxifraga oppositifolia and S. stellaris, which co-occur in the Sierra Nevada, the Pyrenees, and the south-western Alps/Massif Central. Our aim was to distinguish between (successive) vicariance and long-distance dispersal as alternative explan…

Parallel bursts of recent and rapid radiation in the Mediterranean and Eritreo-Arabian biodiversity hotspots as revealed byGlobulariaandCampylanthus(…

2018

An AFLP clock for the absolute dating of shallow-time evolutionary history based on the intraspecific divergence of southwestern European alpine plan…

2009

The dating of recent events in the history of organisms needs divergence rates based on molecular fingerprint markers. Here, we used amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) of three distantly related alpine plant species co-occurring in the Spanish Sierra Nevada, the Pyrenees and the southwestern Alps/Massif Central to establish divergence rates. Within each of these species (Gentiana alpina, Kernera saxatilis and Silene rupestris), we found that the degree of AFLP divergence (D(N72)) between mountain phylogroups was significantly correlated with their time of divergence (as inferred from palaeoclimatic/palynological data), indicating constant AFLP divergence rates. As these rates d…

Complete phylogeny and historical biogeography of true rosefinches (Aves:Carpodacus)

2013

True rosefinches (Aves: Carpodacus) are restricted to Eurasia, and 19 out of 25 species occur in the Sino-Himalayas, making this the likely centre of origin. To test this hypothesis, suggested species splits had to be evaluated and potential further cryptic diversity unravelled. A taxon-complete dated molecular phylogeny was reconstructed using maximum-likelihood and Bayesian methods. Maximum-parsimony and likelihood approaches were applied to deduce ancestral areas. Rosefinches, including the widespread Carpodacus erythrinus (Pallas, 1770), originated in south-west China (and the Himalayas) 14 Mya, and gave rise to a smaller clade consisting of C. erythrinus, Haematospiza sipahi (Hodgson, …

Temporal speciation pattern in the western Mediterranean genus Tudorella P. Fischer, 1885 (Gastropoda, Pomatiidae) supports the Tyrrhenian vicariance…

2009

The land snail genus Tudorella shows a peculiar disjunct distribution around the western Mediterranean coasts. Despite high phenotypic plasticity, only two species with a disputed number of subspecific taxa are currently recognised. We delimited the species with mitochondrial (COI & 16S) and nuclear (ITS-1) markers based on the unified species concept and suggested that there are eight species in the genus, two of them currently undescribed. Applying Bayesian phylogenetic model selection, we tested four different biogeographic hypotheses that could be causal for the current distribution pattern of extant Tudorella species. A scenario involving vicariance events resulting from the repeated s…