title: Recent evolutionary history of Lost World endemics: population genetics, species delimitation, and phylogeography of sky-island treefrogs.
abstract: The tepuis of South America are massive flattop mountains with cliffs up to 1000m and summits up to 3100m. Tepuis hold enormous endemicity levels, but little is known about the origins of the endemic flora and fauna. Recently diverged lineages offer the possibility of understanding the origins of summit endemicity by examining population dynamics and dispersal. We examine species delimitation, clade relationships, and demographic patterns of three recently diverged lineages of Tepuihyla, an endemic treefrog clade. These three lineages represent two currently recognized species, T. edelcae and T. rodriguezi. Given the low divergences in both nuclear and mitochondrial genes among lineages, we find unexpectedly high numbers of unique nuclear haplotypes and moderate levels of lineage sorting. We also find support from multiple analyses for a cryptic, undescribed summit species within T. edelcae. We suggest that the genetic and distribution patterns of the four most recently diverged Tepuihyla lineages support a concurrent speciation event during the Pliocene, and suggest a biogeographic hypothesis in which a widespread climatic change made mid- and low-elevation habitat unsuitable for the common ancestor within the timeframe of their divergence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology and Texas Natural History Collections, University of Texas at Austin, 1, University Station, C0990, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Electronic address: patriciasalerno@gmail.com.
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Salerno
authors.affiliation: Centro de Ecología, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Apartado 20632, Caracas 1020-A, Venezuela. Electronic address: jsenaris@ivic.gob.ve.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Señaris
authors.affiliation: Museo de Historia Natural La Salle, final Av. Maripérez con Av. Boyacá (Cota Mil), Apartado Postal 1930, Caracas 1010-A, Venezuela; Laboratório de Sistemática de Vertebrados, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Av. Ipiranga 6681, Porto Alegre, RS 90619-900, Brazil. Electronic address: rojas_runjaic@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: F J M
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Rojas-Runjaic
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Biology and Texas Natural History Collections, University of Texas at Austin, 1, University Station, C0990, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Electronic address: catfish@austin.utexas.edu.
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Cannatella
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001001:Anura / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D017753:Ecosystem; D005828:Genetics, Population; D006239:Haplotypes; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013020:South America
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: Coalescent; Haplotype diversity; Species delimitation; Tepui; Tepuihyla