title: Late Miocene diversification and phylogenetic relationships of the huge toads in the Rhinella marina (Linnaeus, 1758) species group (Anura: Bufonidae).
abstract: We investigated the phylogeny and biogeography of the Rhinella marina group, using molecular, morphological, and skin-secretion data, contributing to an understanding of Neotropical faunal diversification. The maximum-parsimony and Bayesian analyzes of the combined data recovered a monophyletic R. marina group. Molecular dating based on Bayesian inferences and fossil calibration placed the earliest phylogenetic split within the R. marina group at ∼ 10.47 MYA, in the late Miocene. Two rapid major diversifications occurred from Central Brazil, first northward (∼ 8.08 MYA) in late Miocene and later southward (∼ 5.17 MYA) in early Pliocene. These results suggest that barriers and dispersal routes created by the uplift of Brazilian Central Shield and climatic changes explain the diversification and current species distributions of the R. marina group. Dispersal-vicariance analyzes (DIVA) indicated that the two major diversifications of the R. marina group were due to vicariance, although eleven dispersals subsequently occurred.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Comportamento Animal, Herpetologia e Conservação da Natureza, Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Campus Samambaia, 74001-970 Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil. nmaciel@gmail.com
authors.forename: Natan Medeiros
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Maciel
authors.forename: Rosane Garcia
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Collevatti
authors.forename: Guarino Rinaldi
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Colli
authors.forename: Elisabeth Ferroni
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Schwartz
mesh_terms: D000588:Amines / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002025:Bufonidae / Q000145:classification*; D002855:Chromatography, Thin Layer; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D000588:Amines