title: Rodents of the Caribbean: origin and diversification of hutias unravelled by next-generation museomics.
abstract: The Capromyidae (hutias) are endemic rodents of the Caribbean and represent a model of dispersal for non-flying mammals in the Greater Antilles. This family has experienced severe extinctions during the Holocene and its phylogenetic affinities with respect to other caviomorph relatives are still debated as morphological and molecular data disagree. We used target enrichment and next-generation sequencing of mitochondrial and nuclear genes to infer the phylogenetic relationships of hutias, estimate their divergence ages, and understand their mode of dispersal in the Greater Antilles.We found that Capromyidae are nested within Echimyidae (spiny rats) and should be considered a subfamily thereof. We estimated that the split between hutias and Atlantic Forest spiny rats occurred 16.5 (14.8–18.2) million years ago (Ma), which is more recent than the GAARlandia land bridge hypothesis (34–35 Ma). This would suggest that during the Early Miocene, an echimyid-like ancestor colonized the Greater Antilles from an eastern South American source population via rafting. The basal divergence of the Hispaniolan Plagiodontia provides further support for a vicariant separation between Hispaniolan and western islands (Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica) hutias. Recent divergences among these western hutias suggest Plio-Pleistocene dispersal waves associated with glacial cycles.
authors.forename: Pierre-Henri
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Fabre
authors.forename: Julia T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Vilstrup
authors.forename: Maanasa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Raghavan
authors.forename: Clio Der
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Sarkissian
authors.forename: Eske
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Willerslev
authors.forename: Emmanuel J P
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Douzery
authors.forename: Ludovic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Orlando
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017691:Caribbean Region; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D012377:Rodentia / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D012335:RNA, Ribosomal