INVESTIGADORES
BALDO Juan Diego
artículos
Título:
What happened in the South American Gran Chaco? Diversification of the endemic frog genus Lepidobatrachus Budgett, 1899 (Anura: Ceratophryidae)
Autor/es:
BRUSQUETTI, FRANCISCO; NETTO, FLAVIA; BALDO, DIEGO; HADDAD, CÉLIO F.B.
Revista:
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
Editorial:
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
Referencias:
Año: 2018
ISSN:
1055-7903
Resumen:
The Chaco is one the most neglected and least studied regions of the world. This highly-seasonal semiaridbiome is an extensive continuous plain without any geographic barrier, and in spite of its high species diversity,the events and processes responsible have never been assessed. Miocene marine introgressions and Pleistoceneglaciations have been mentioned as putative drivers of diversification for some groups of vertebrates in adjacentbiomes of southern South America. Here we used multilocus data (one mitochondrial and six nuclear loci) fromthe three species of the endemic frog genus Lepidobatrachus (Lepidobatrachus asper, Lepidobatrachus laevis, andLepidobatrachus llanensis) to determine if any of the historical events suggested as drivers of vertebrate diversificationin southern South America are related to the diversification of the genus and if the Chaco is indeed abiome without barriers. Using fossil calibration in a coalescent framework we estimated that the genus diversifiedin the second half of the Miocene, coinciding with marine introgressions. Genetic patterns and historicaldemography suggest an important role of old archs and cratons as refuges during floods. In one species of thegenus, L. llanensis, genetic structure reveals some breaks along the landscape, the main one of which correspondsto an area of the central Chaco that may act as a climatic barrier. Additionally, we found differential effects ofthe main Chacoan rivers on species of Lepidobatrachus that could be related to the time of persistence of populationsin the areas influenced by these rivers.