title: Dating an impressive Neotropical radiation: Molecular time estimates for the Sigmodontinae (Rodentia) provide insights into its historical biogeography.
abstract: With about 400 living species and 82 genera, rodents of the subfamily Sigmodontinae comprise one of the most diverse and more broadly distributed Neotropical mammalian clades. There has been much debate on the origin of the lineage or the lineages of sigmodontines that entered South America, the timing of entrance and different aspects of further diversification within South America. The ages of divergence of the main lineages and the crown age of the subfamily were estimated by using sequences of the interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein and cytochrome b genes for a dense sigmodontine and muroid sampling. Bayesian inference using three fossil calibration points and a relaxed molecular clock estimated a middle Miocene origin for Sigmodontinae (∼12Ma), with most tribes diversifying throughout the Late Miocene (6.9-9.4Ma). These estimates together results of analyses of ancestral area reconstructions suggest a distribution for the most recent common ancestor of Sigmodontinae in Central-South America and a South American distribution for the most recent common ancestor of Oryzomyalia.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Avda. Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins 340, Santiago 6513677, Chile. andrespara@gmail.com
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parada
authors.forename: Ulyses F J
authors.initials: UF
authors.lastname: Pardiñas
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Salazar-Bravo
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: D'Elía
authors.forename: R Eduardo
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Palma
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002489:Central America; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005136:Eye Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D058974:Phylogeography; D012177:Retinol-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D016205:Sigmodontinae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D013020:South America; D000099214:Retinol-Binding Proteins, Interstitial
chemical_list: D045303:Cytochromes b; D005136:Eye Proteins; D012177:Retinol-Binding Proteins; D000099214:Retinol-Binding Proteins, Interstitial