TY - JOUR
T1 - Aridification drove repeated episodes of diversification between Australian biomes
T2 - Evidence from a multi-locus phylogeny of Australian toadlets (Uperoleia: Myobatrachidae)
AU - Catullo, Renee A.
AU - Scott Keogh, J.
PY - 2014/10
Y1 - 2014/10
N2 - Australia is a large and complex landmass that comprises diverse biomes ranging from tropical rainforests to harsh deserts. While Australian biotic diversity has evolved in response to landscape and climate changes, evidence of Miocene or later biome shifts are few. The Australo-Papuan endemic frog genus Uperoleia is widely distributed across mesic, monsoonal tropic and arid regions of Australia. Thus, it represents an ideal system to evaluate biome shifts as they relate to known landscape and climate history. We comprehensively sampled the distributional range of 25 described Uperoleia species and generated a detailed molecular phylogeny for the genus based on one mitochondrial and five nuclear loci. Our results support a single origin of monsoonal tropic taxa, followed by diversification within the region under the influence of the Australian monsoon. Molecular dating analyses suggest the major divergence between eastern mesic and monsoonal species occurred in the Miocene approximately 17. million years ago, with repeated evolution of species from monsoonal biomes to arid or mesic biomes in the later Miocene, early Pliocene and at the beginning of the Pleistocene. Our detailed sampling helps to clarify the true distributions of species and contributes to on-going work to improve the taxonomy of the genus. Topological differences between nuclear and mitochondrial phylogenies within major clades suggest a history of mitochondrial introgression and capture, and reduce the ability to resolve close interspecific relationships.
AB - Australia is a large and complex landmass that comprises diverse biomes ranging from tropical rainforests to harsh deserts. While Australian biotic diversity has evolved in response to landscape and climate changes, evidence of Miocene or later biome shifts are few. The Australo-Papuan endemic frog genus Uperoleia is widely distributed across mesic, monsoonal tropic and arid regions of Australia. Thus, it represents an ideal system to evaluate biome shifts as they relate to known landscape and climate history. We comprehensively sampled the distributional range of 25 described Uperoleia species and generated a detailed molecular phylogeny for the genus based on one mitochondrial and five nuclear loci. Our results support a single origin of monsoonal tropic taxa, followed by diversification within the region under the influence of the Australian monsoon. Molecular dating analyses suggest the major divergence between eastern mesic and monsoonal species occurred in the Miocene approximately 17. million years ago, with repeated evolution of species from monsoonal biomes to arid or mesic biomes in the later Miocene, early Pliocene and at the beginning of the Pleistocene. Our detailed sampling helps to clarify the true distributions of species and contributes to on-going work to improve the taxonomy of the genus. Topological differences between nuclear and mitochondrial phylogenies within major clades suggest a history of mitochondrial introgression and capture, and reduce the ability to resolve close interspecific relationships.
KW - Arid zone
KW - Australian monsoonal tropics
KW - Deserts
KW - Historical biogeography
KW - Mitochondrial capture
KW - Phylogeography
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84908075228&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ympev.2014.06.012
DO - 10.1016/j.ympev.2014.06.012
M3 - Article
SN - 1055-7903
VL - 79
SP - 106
EP - 117
JO - Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
JF - Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
IS - 1
ER -