Biogeography of the Gondwanan tree fern family Dicksoniaceae—A tale of vicariance, dispersal and extinction

Abstract

Aim: Are the disjunct distributions of ancient lineages on continents in the Southern Hemisphere determined by vicariance following the Gondwanan tectonic breakup or recent long-distance dispersal? We traced the historical biogeography of the tree fern family Dicksoniaceae (145 Ma), which has a typical Gondwanan distribution, to test for vicariance or recent long-distance dispersal.Location: Subtropical, tropical and temperate forests of the Southern Hemisphere. Methods:We performed a molecular phylogenetic study of the family based on four chloroplast markers using Bayesian and maximum likelihood inference. Spore fossils served to calibrate the dating of the phylogeny using BEAST. The historical biogeography of the family was traced via an ancestral area reconstruction using a maximum likelihood approach.Results: We corroborated the genus Dicksonia (widespread) as sister to Lophosoria (Neotropical), with Calochlaena (Palaeotropical) as sister to both. The phylogenetic splits between the genera predate the break-up of Gondwana.

Rates of molecular evolution in tree ferns are associated with body size, environmental temperature, and biological productivity

“…1) were consistent with the results obtained by previous studies (e.g., Korall et al 2006Korall et al , 2007Korall et al , 2010Geiger et al 2013;Korall and Pryer 2014;Testo and Sundue 2016;Ramírez-Barahona et al 2016). The maximum credibility tree showed PPs > 0.9 throughout most of the deeper nodes within the phylogeny, with the exception of the relationships between the three genera of the Dicksoniaceae (see Noben et al 2017), the relationships between Alsophila, Gymnosphaera, and Cyathea (see Korall and Pryer 2014), and the relationships between the two Neotropical clades relative to the African clade of Alsophila (see Ramírez-Barahona et al 2016). Several shallow phylogenetic relationships had weaker support, such as those among the Madagascan Cyatheaceae (see ).…”

“…The maximum credibility tree showed PPs > 0.9 throughout most of the deeper nodes within the phylogeny, with the exception of the relationships between the three genera of the Dicksoniaceae (see Noben et al. ), the relationships between Alsophila , Gymnosphaera , and Cyathea (see Korall and Pryer ), and the relationships between the two Neotropical clades relative to the African clade of Alsophila (see Ramírez‐Barahona et al. ).…”

Overcoming among‐lineage rate heterogeneity to infer the divergence times and biogeography of the clubmoss family Lycopodiaceae

“…Nonetheless, several long-distance dispersal events have important implications for understanding the evolutionary history of some genera and warrant discussion. Recent trans-Austral long-distance dispersal occurred in both Austrolycopodium and Huperzia(Figure 3), fitting a pattern commonly found in Austral plant groups(Barker et al, 2007;Renner, Strijk, Strasberg, & Th ebaud, 2010;Richardson, Chatrou, Mols, Erkens, & Pirie, 2004;Noben et al, 2017). Long-distance dispersal is also responsible for both species (Phlegmariurus saururus) and species pair (Phlegmariurus phylicifolius and P. ophioglossoides) range disjunctions between the Neotropics and southern Africa/Madagascar, as has been reported for numerous fern and lycophyte genera byMoran and Smith (2001).…”

“…Podocarpus , Quiroga, Mathiasen, Iglesias, Mill, & Premoli, ; Nothofagus , Swenson, Hill, & McLoughlin, ; Proteaceae, Barker, Weston, Rutschmann, & Sauquet, ) and fern lineages (e.g. Cyatheaceae, Korall & Pryer, ; Trichomanes , Dubuisson et al., ; Dicksoniaceae, Noben et al., ), there is no evidence of migration between South America and Oceania through Antarctica (a connection that persisted until the middle Eocene; Wilf, Cúneo, Escapa, Pol, & Woodburne, ) or of intercontinental long‐distance dispersal leading to subsequent diversification events in Phlegmariurus . The inferred pattern of ancient Gondwanan affinity within subfamily Huperzioideae may also be influenced by the position of Phylloglossum in the phylogeny.…”

Morphology, geographic distribution, and host preferences are poor predictors of phylogenetic relatedness in the mistletoe genus Viscum L

“…We used the following newly designed, Viscum -specific primers: SEQITS2_VISCUM (5’-AACGACTCTCGRCAATGG-3’) with ITS4 and SEQITS1_VISCUM (5’-TTGCGTTCAAAAACTCAATGA-3’) with ITS5 to amplify the region in two overlapping halves when only low-quality or fragmented template DNA was available. We amplified rbcL and trnL-F using the rbcL-1F primer (Olmstead et al 1992) in combination with rbcL -1368R (Fritsch et al 2001), and the trnL-F universal primers (Noben et al, 2017), respectively. DNA sequencing was carried out by GATC Biotech (Germany) or Macrogen Inc. (Netherlands).…”