An expanded phylogeny of treefrogs (Hylidae) based on nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data

Abstract

The treefrogs (Hylidae) make up one of the most species-rich families of amphibians. With 885 species currently described, they contain >13% of all amphibian species. In recent years, there has been considerable progress in resolving hylid phylogeny. However, the most comprehensive phylogeny to date (Wiens et al., 2006) included only 292 species, was based only on parsimony, provided only poor support for most higher-level relationships, and conflicted with previous hypotheses in several parts (including the monophyly and relationships of major clades of Hylinae). Here, we present an expanded phylogeny for hylid frogs, including data for 362 hylid taxa for up to 11 genes (4 mitochondrial, 7 nuclear), including 70 additional taxa and >270 sequences not included in the previously most comprehensive analysis. The new tree from maximum likelihood analysis is more well-resolved, strongly supported, and concordant with previous hypotheses, and provides a framework for future systematic, biogeographic, ecological, and evolutionary studies.

Amphibians crossing the Bering Land Bridge: Evidence from holarctic treefrogs (Hyla, Hylidae, Anura)

“…We can confirm monophyly of the genus Hyla as retrieved in several previous studies (Faivovich et al, 2005;Smith et al, 2005Smith et al, , 2007Wiens et al, 2005Wiens et al, , 2006Wiens et al, , 2010Hua et al, 2009). Differences from the study of Hua et al (2009) concern monophyly of the cinerea-and versicolor-groups as well as the phylogenetic relationships between these and the japonica-group.…”

“…16 Mya) fossil of Acris barbouri that was unearthed in North America, and which is probably the sister group of extant Acris species (Holman, 2003). As the genus Acris is in all previous phylogenies retrieved as the sister group of the genus Pseudacris (Smith et al, 2005(Smith et al, , 2007Wiens et al, 2006Wiens et al, , 2010, we set the minimum age for the divergence of Acris and Pseudacris to 16 Mya (5-95% interquantile range 19-16 Mya). (B) Fossil H. miofloridana was also described from Miocene Hemingfordian sediments in North America (20-16 Mya), which is supposed to be a close relative of extant H. gratiosa (Holman, 2003).…”

“…(B) Fossil H. miofloridana was also described from Miocene Hemingfordian sediments in North America (20-16 Mya), which is supposed to be a close relative of extant H. gratiosa (Holman, 2003). According to the revised phylogenetic position of H. gratiosa, H. cinerea and H. gratiosa constitute a monophyletic group (Hua et al, 2009;Wiens et al, 2010). We assume based on the fossil species that the minimum age of the MRCA of this lineage is 16 Myr (5-95% interquantile range 19-16 Mya).…”

“…(C) Fossil H. miocenica from North America is dated to the Middle Miocene (Barstovian; 16-14 Mya) and is morphologically close to the extant species H. chrysoscelis and H. versicolor (Holman, 2003). As H. avivoca is most likely the sister taxon to H. chrysoscelis (Hua et al, 2009;Wiens et al, 2010), we set the minimum age of the MRCA of H. versicolor and H. chrysoscelis to 14 Mya (5-95% interquantile range 17-14 Mya). The phylogenetic affinity of fossil Hyla sp.…”

New locality records and geographic distribution map of Dendropsophus meridensis (Rivero, 1961) (Anura: Hylidae) in the Andes of Venezuela

“…In Venezuela, there are 12 species (Barrio-Amorós 2009), of which Dendropsophus meridensis (Rivero, 1961) is the only species endemic to the Cordillera de Mérida (La Marca 1992). This species is included in the labialis species group (Duellman 1989;Faivovich et al 2005;Wiens et al 2010) with D. labialis (Peters, 1863), D. luddeckei Guarnizo, Escallón, Cannatella & Amézquita, 2012, and D. pelidna (Duellman, 1989). The later was suggested to be a junior subjective synonym of D. mer idensis by Guarnizo et al (2012), but they did not formally propose a taxonomic reassignment because their study lacked robust data.…”