Phylogenetics of fanged frogs: testing biogeographical hypotheses at the interface of the asian and Australian faunal zones.
The interface of the Asian and Australian faunal zones is defined by a network of deep ocean trenches that separate intervening islands of the Philippines and Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Lesser Sundas, and the Moluccas). Studies of this region by Wallace marked the genesis of the field of biogeography, yet few workers have used molecular methods to investigate the biogeography of taxa whose distribution spans this interface. Some taxa, such as the fanged frogs of the ranid genus Limnonectes, have distributions on either side of the zoogeographical lines of Wallace and Huxley, offering an opportunity to ask how frequently these purported barriers were crossed and by what paths. To examine diversification of Limnonectes in Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and Wallacea, we estimated a phylogeny from mitochondrial DNA sequences obtained from a robust geographic sample. Our analyses suggest that these frogs dispersed from Borneo to the Philippines at least twice, from Borneo to Sulawesi once or twice, from Sulawesi to the Philippines once, and from the Philippines to Sulawesi once. Dispersal to the Moluccas occurred from Sulawesi and to the Lesser Sundas from Java/Bali. Species distributions are generally concordant with Pleistocene aggregate island complexes of the Philippines and with areas of endemism on Sulawesi. We conclude that the recognition of zoogeographic lines, though insightful, may oversimplify the biogeography of widespread taxa in this region.
Evans
Ben J
BJ
Center for Environmental Research and Conservation and Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. bje5@columbia.edu
Brown
Rafe M
RM
McGuire
Jimmy A
JA
Supriatna
Jatna
J
Andayani
Noviar
N
Diesmos
Arvin
A
Iskandar
Djoko
D
Melnick
Don J
DJ
Cannatella
David C
DC
D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D001483:Base Sequence; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D005843:Geography; D007214:Indonesia; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D010679:Philippines; D010802:Phylogeny; D011898:Ranidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial