TY - JOUR
T1 - Evolutionary diversification of the lizard genus Bassiana (Scincidae) across Southern Australia
AU - Dubey, Sylvain
AU - Shine, Richard
N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2010. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.
PY - 2010/9/24
Y1 - 2010/9/24
N2 - Background:Relatively recent (Plio-Pleistocene) climatic variations had strong impacts on the fauna and flora of temperatezone North America and Europe; genetic analyses suggest that many lineages were restricted to unglaciated refuges during this time, and have expanded their ranges since then. Temperate-zone Australia experienced less severe glaciation, suggesting that patterns of genetic structure among species may reflect older (aridity-driven) divergence events rather than Plio-Pleistocene (thermally-mediated) divergences. The lizard genus Bassiana (Squamata, Scincidae) contains three species that occur across a wide area of southern Australia (including Tasmania), rendering them ideally-suited to studies on the impact of past climatic fluctuations. Methodology/Principal Findings: We performed molecular phylogenetic and dating analyses using two partial mitochondrial genes (ND2 and ND4) of 97 samples of Bassiana spp. Our results reveal a pattern of diversification beginning in the Middle Miocene, with intraspecific diversification arising from 5.7 to 1.7 million years ago in the Upper Miocene-Lower Pleistocene. Conclusions/Significance: In contrast to the temperate-zone Northern Hemisphere biota, patterns of evolutionary diversification within southern Australian taxa appear to reflect geologically ancient events, mostly relating to east-west discontinuities imposed by aridity rather than (as is the case in Europe and North America) relatively recent recolonisation of northern regions from unglaciated refugia to the south.
AB - Background:Relatively recent (Plio-Pleistocene) climatic variations had strong impacts on the fauna and flora of temperatezone North America and Europe; genetic analyses suggest that many lineages were restricted to unglaciated refuges during this time, and have expanded their ranges since then. Temperate-zone Australia experienced less severe glaciation, suggesting that patterns of genetic structure among species may reflect older (aridity-driven) divergence events rather than Plio-Pleistocene (thermally-mediated) divergences. The lizard genus Bassiana (Squamata, Scincidae) contains three species that occur across a wide area of southern Australia (including Tasmania), rendering them ideally-suited to studies on the impact of past climatic fluctuations. Methodology/Principal Findings: We performed molecular phylogenetic and dating analyses using two partial mitochondrial genes (ND2 and ND4) of 97 samples of Bassiana spp. Our results reveal a pattern of diversification beginning in the Middle Miocene, with intraspecific diversification arising from 5.7 to 1.7 million years ago in the Upper Miocene-Lower Pleistocene. Conclusions/Significance: In contrast to the temperate-zone Northern Hemisphere biota, patterns of evolutionary diversification within southern Australian taxa appear to reflect geologically ancient events, mostly relating to east-west discontinuities imposed by aridity rather than (as is the case in Europe and North America) relatively recent recolonisation of northern regions from unglaciated refugia to the south.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77958521223&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0012982
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0012982
M3 - Article
C2 - 20886050
AN - SCOPUS:77958521223
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 5
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 9
M1 - e12982
ER -