Comparative phylogeography reveals cryptic diversity and repeated patterns of cladogenesis for amphibians and reptiles in northwestern Ecuador
Comparative phylogeography is now a common approach to understand how historical processes have shaped the formation of lineages in a broad spectrum of codistributed populations of different taxa. However, these types of studies are scarce in the Neotropics, a region that is characterized by spec...
| Autor Principal: | Arteaga Navarro, Alejandro Federico |
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| Formato: | bachelorThesis |
| Idioma: | English |
| Publicado: |
PUCE
2016
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: |
http://repositorio.puce.edu.ec/handle/22000/10390 |
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| Sumario: |
Comparative phylogeography is now a common approach to understand how
historical processes have shaped the formation of lineages in a broad spectrum of
codistributed populations of different taxa. However, these types of studies are scarce in the
Neotropics, a region that is characterized by speciose assemblages, complex geological
history, and poorly understood historical biogeography. To cope with this lack of knowledge,
in this study, we apply a broad comparative approach to investigate the diversification
patterns, if any, of five lineages of amphibians and reptiles codistributed at the biogeographic
boundaries of the Choco and Andes ecoregions in northwester Ecuador. Mitochondrial
sequences were used to determine the degree of diversification within species. Our results
highlight congruent patterns of parapatric speciation and common geographical barriers for
distantly related taxa. These comparisons indicate similar biological and demographic
characteristics for the included clades, and reveal the existence of two new species of
Pristimantis previously subsumed under P. walkeri. Our data supports the hypothesis that
widely distributed Chocoan taxa may generally experience their greatest opportunities for
isolation and parapatric speciation across elevational thermal gradients in the adjacent
montane forests. Finally, our study provides critical information to predict which unstudied
lineages may harbor cryptic diversity, and how geology and climate are likely to have shaped
their evolutionary history. |
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