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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
ABSTRACT
Aim To test the importance of the Lago Mare stage of the Messinian Salinity
Crisis for the dispersal and diversification of European leuciscins (Cyprinidae:
Leuciscinae).
Location Europe.
Methods Cytochrome b sequences of European leuciscins were employed to
investigate phylogenetic relationships among species, using Bayesian inference,
and to estimate times of diversification, using a relaxed molecular clock. The
distributions of 190 European leuciscins were compiled, and regional species
compositions were compared using a taxonomic similarity index and an area
cladogram.
Results Leuciscins restricted to the Iberian and Italian peninsulas and the West
and South Balkan regions are phylogenetically more closely related to northern
European species than to species from another southern European area.
Application of a relaxed molecular clock to a Bayesian phylogeny indicates that
most southern clades originated and diversified prior to the Messinian. Southern
European regions are taxonomically distinct from one another, and from a more
taxonomically homogeneous group of areas that includes Anatolia, East Balkans,
Middle East, North Europe and West Russia.
Main conclusions The scenario of a Messinian period of dispersal of
Paratethyan fauna into Mediterranean regions, via the Lago Mare, predicts a
rapid period of diversification and a pattern of close association among southern
European faunas. Phylogenetic relationships among leuciscins, the timing of
cladogenic events, and the taxonomic similarity among geographical regions do
not conform to this expectation. The depth of clades endemic to southern
Europe, together with the high levels of endemism in these regions, suggests that
the faunas in these regions diverged prior to the Messinian and have evolved
largely in isolation from one another. Our results support a model of gradual
colonization of Mediterranean regions since the Oligocene. Subsequent
connections between adjacent areas may have occurred in the Messinian or
Pleistocene.
Description
Keywords
Bayesian phylogeny Cyprinidae Freshwater dispersal routes Historical biogeography Lago Mare Leuciscinae Mediterranean Messinian Salinity Crisis
Citation
Journal of Biogeography, 36, 55-65