Genetic variation among Corsican and continental populations of the Eurasian treecreeper (Aves:Certhia familiaris) reveals the existence of a palaeoendemic mitochondrial lineage

Abstract

In this study we investigated the phylogenetics of the Eurasian treecreeper (Certhia familiaris), a forest passerine with a wide Palaearctic range including Corsica, using three mitochondrial genes and three nuclear introns, and its phylogeographic history using the COI gene. Our phylogenetic results, including eight of the ten sub-species currently recognized, support the monophyly of C. familiaris with respect to its Indo-Asian sister species C. hodgsoni. C. familiaris comprises two lineages that diverged during the mid-Pleistocene (c. 1 Myr): one palaeoendemic lineage has an allopatric range nowadays restricted to the Corsica island and the Caucasus region whereas the second one, more recent and widespread, is distributed over most of Eurasia and in northern China. The most likely scenario that may explain such a pattern is a double colonization of the western Palaearctic from the eastern range of the species. During the middle Pleistocene period, a first lineage expanded its range up into Europe but did not persist through glacial cycles except in Corsica and the Caucasus region. Later, during the upper Pleistocene, a second lineage began to diversify around 0.09 Myr, spreading towards the western Palaearctic from a unique refuge likely located in the eastern Palaearctic [correction added on 6 March 2015 after first online publication: 0.9 Myr amended to 0.09 Myr]. Apart from C. f. corsa, our results do not suggest any distinct evolutionary history for other sub-species previously described on morphological grounds in Europe. Our study highlights the important conservation value of the Corsican treecreeper and emphasizes the major role of mature pine forests in the evolution of endemic bird taxa in Corsica.

The role of western Mediterranean islands in the evolutionary diversification of the spotted flycatcher Muscicapa striata, a long‐distance migratory passerine species

“…Our genetic survey reveals a unique phylogeographic pattern, highlighting the major importance of western Mediterranean islands in the present day genetic structure of the spotted flycatcher. With exception of Mediterranean Sylvia warblers, for which Mediterranean islands played a major role in speciation patterns (Brambilla et al , Voelker and Light ), most endemism cases documented to date for passerine birds on these islands concerns sedentary or short‐distance migratory species (Pasquet and Thibault , Förschler et al , Carduelis ; Pasquet et al , Sitta ; Pons et al , Certhia ). There is no clear geographical structure for the very widespread Eurasian (that is Iberian Peninsula and north Africa excluded) clade for which a western subspecies ( striata ) and an eastern subspecies ( neumanni ) were traditionally recognized.…”

“…Divergence event between M. s. balearica (Balearic Islands) and M. s. tyrrhenica (Corsica, Sardinia and Tyrrhenian coast) from western Mediterranean islands occurred during the late Pleistocene (around 0.4 Mya) as well as the split between the widespread Eurasian lineage and the Iberian‐north African lineage. The late‐Pleistocene was characterized by accentuation of amplitude and duration of climatic cycles that most probably favoured allopatric divergence of many Palaearctic bird species (Guillaumet et al , Pellegrino et al , Pons et al ). Yet, given the broad 95% HPD and the uncertainties associated with the molecular rates, it is not possible to attribute any of these diversification events to a particular climatic oscillation.…”

“…In addition to western Mediterranean islands, our results suggest that the spotted flycatcher survived repeated glacial periods in at least two mainland glacial refugia. The most ancestral and widespread Eurasian haplotype has been found in the Italian Peninsula and Caucasus, two regions known to have constituted glacial refugia for bird taxa (Hung et al , Pellegrino et al , Pons et al ). The phylogeographic pattern and divergence date estimates recovered in this study favour the existence of several refugia located in western Mediterranean islands, southern Europe, and north Africa and/or the Iberian Peninsula.…”

The niches of nuthatches affect their lineage evolution differently across latitude

“…The IMa analyses suggest that the S. nagaensis and East Asia ( S. europaea ) lineages diverged around 1.9 myr, and the S. europaea lineages diverged from one another around 0.2–1.6 myr when Middle and Late Pleistocene glacial–interglacial cycles were the dominant climatic regime. The Pleistocene climate appears to have impacted the lineage divergence of several species, including the Eurasian wren ( Troglodytes troglodytes ; Drovetski, Zink, Rohwer, et al, ), the common rosefinch ( Carpodacus erythrinus ; Hung, Drovetski, & Zink, ), the horned lark ( Eremophila alpestris ; Drovetski, Raković, Semenov, Fadeev, & Red'kin, ), the Eurasian treecreeper ( Certhia familiaris ; Pons et al, ) and the long‐tailed tit ( Aegithalos caudatus ; Song et al, ), in the Eurasian area. Our study suggests that climate fluctuations during the Pleistocene also might have caused the splits among the Eurasian nuthatch lineages.…”

Mito-nuclear phylogeography of the cyprinid fishGymnodiptychus dybowskiiin the arid Tien Shan region of Central Asia

“…We resolved three clades, one in each of the three principal drainages separated by the NTS and STS mountain ranges. This phylogeographic pattern is shared with a variety of animals (Wang et al, 2013;Dellicour, Michez & Mardulyn, 2015;Meng et al, 2015b;Peña et al, 2015;Pons et al, 2015) and plants (Zhang & Zhang, 2012a, b;Meng & Zhang, 2013;Meng et al, 2015a). Shared phylogeographical pattern across a diversity of forms implies historical vicariance.…”