The reanalysis of biogeography of the Asian tree frog, Rhacophorus (Anura: Rhacophoridae): geographic shifts and climatic change influenced the dispersal process and diversification

PeerJ

article

Tao Pan¹  Yanan Zhang¹  Hui Wang¹  Jun Wu²  Xing Kang¹  Lifu Qian¹  Jinyun Chen³  Dingqi Rao⁴  Jianping Jiang⁵  Baowei Zhang¹ 

[1] Anhui Key Laboratory of Eco-engineering and Bio-technique, School of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui Province;Ministry of Environmental Protection, Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences;Department of Life Science, Huainan Normal University;Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences;Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences;School of Biosciences, Cardiff University

关键词: Dispersal process;    Rhacophorus;    Diversification;    Geographic shift;    Climate change;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.3995

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Rapid uplifts of the Tibetan Plateau and climate change in Asia are thought to have profoundly modulated the diversification of most of the species distributed throughout Asia. The ranoid tree frog genus Rhacophorus, the largest genus in the Rhacophoridae, is widely distributed in Asia and especially speciose in the areas south and east of the Tibetan Plateau. Here, we infer phylogenetic relationships among species and estimate divergence times, asking whether the spatiotemporal characteristics of diversification within Rhacophorus were related to rapid uplifts of the Tibetan Plateau and concomitant climate change. Phylogenetic analysis recovered distinct lineage structures in Rhacophorus, which indicated a clear distribution pattern from Southeast Asia toward East Asia and India. Molecular dating suggests that the first split within the genus date back to the Middle Oligocene (approx. 30 Ma). The Rhacophorus lineage through time (LTT) showed that there were periods of increased speciation rate: 14–12 Ma and 10–4 Ma. In addition, ancestral area reconstructions supported Southeast Asia as the ancestral area of Rhacophorus. According to the results of molecular dating, ancestral area reconstructions and LTT we think the geographic shifts, the staged rapid rises of the Tibetan Plateau with parallel climatic changes and reinforcement of the Asian monsoons (15 Ma, 8 Ma and 4–3 Ma), possibly prompted a burst of diversification in Rhacophorus.

【 授权许可】

CC BY