Dated phylogenetic studies of the southernmost American buthids (Scorpiones; Buthidae)

Multiple approaches to understanding the taxonomic status of an enigmatic new scorpion species of the genus Tityus (Buthidae) from the biogeographic island of Paraje Tres Cerros (Argentina)

“…Our results do not support the subgeneric division proposed by Lourenço [10], nor the validity of some of the groups of species of the area, since subgenus Tityus , as currently defined, appears as paraphyletic, and group confluens as a synonym of group trivittatus [11]. Groups bolivianus , clathrattus , and trivittatus , on the other hand, appear as well supported, and most probably correspond to monophyletic groups.…”

“…Due to this, and to its particular geomorphology, clearly different from the surrounding areas, several endemic species of animals and plants have evolved there [18, 19, 20, 13, 14]. Our group recently published a dated molecular phylogeny of South American Buthidae which strongly supports this hypothesis [11]. In that contribution we also propose a recent and relatively fast (5 MY) colonization pattern of the intermediate emerged areas of Chaco, by several groups of scorpions of northern lineages.…”

The Presence of Tityus confluens Borelli in Buenos Aires city and the expansion of the distribution of the medically important species of Tityus (Scorpiones; Buthidae) in Argentina

“…Podría haber llegado allí transportado junto con mercaderías, aunque también es muy probable que haya llegado junto con las balsas de vegetación flotante que regularmente transporta el río Paraná, ya que esta ciudad se encuentra muy cercana a este río, y no se encuentra alejada del área de distribución natural de esta especie. Muchos escorpiones son transportados pasivamente en balsas de vegetación, y de hecho se ha sugerido que el ingreso de la familia Buthidae a América desde África hace alrededor de 45 millones de años pudo haberse dado de una forma similar (ojanguren-Affilastro et al, 2017).…”

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“…Oceanic dispersal was also invoked by Ojanguren-Affilastro et al (2017a) to address inconsistency between Cenozoic molecular dating of the origin of New World buthids and Gondwanan vicariance models (Fet et al, 2005). In doing so, they revived an old trans-Atlantic rafting hypothesis previously articulated by Newlands (1973) to explain disjunct New World and Old World distributions of Opisthacanthus.…”