Historical biogeography of the genusRhadinaea(Squamata: Dipsadinae)

Abstract

Multiple geological and climatic events have created geographical or ecological barriers associated with speciation events, playing a role in biological diversification in North and Central America. Here, we evaluate the influence of the Neogene and Quaternary geological events, as well as the climatic changes in the diversification of the colubrid snake genus Rhadinaea using molecular dating and ancestral area reconstruction. A multilocus sequence dataset was generated for 37 individuals of Rhadinaea from most of the biogeographical provinces where the genus is distributed, representing 19 of the 21 currently recognized species, and two undescribed species. Our analyses show that the majority of the Rhadinaea species nest in two main clades, herein identified as “Eastern” and “Southern”. These clades probably diverged from each other in the early Miocene, and their divergence was followed by 11 divergences during the middle to late Miocene, three divergences during the Pliocene, and six divergences in the Pleistocene. The ancestral distribution of Rhadinaea was reconstructed across the Sierra Madre del Sur. Our phylogenetic analyses do not support the monophyly of Rhadinaea. The Miocene and Pliocene geomorphology, perhaps in conjunction with climate change, appears to have triggered the diversification of the genus, while the climatic changes during the Miocene probably induced the diversification of Rhadinaea in the Sierra Madre del Sur. Our analysis suggests that the uplifting of the Trans‐Mexican Volcanic Belt and Chiapan–Guatemalan highlands in this same period resulted in northward and southward colonization events. This was followed by more recent, independent colonization events in the Pliocene and Pleistocene involving the Balsas Basin, Chihuahuan Desert, Pacific Coast, Sierra Madre Occidental, Sierra Madre Oriental, Sierra Madre del Sur, Trans‐Mexican Volcanic Belt, and Veracruz provinces, probably driven by the climatic fluctuations of the time.

Amphibians and reptiles of the Sierra Gorda de Querétaro Biosphere Reserve, Mexico: species richness, conservation status and comparison with other natural protected areas in central Mexico

“…Conservation status in Mexico according to the NOM-059-SEMARNAT (Semarnat, 2010): A = threatened, Pr = subject to special protection, Ne = Not evaluated); conservation status according to the Red List (IUCN, 2023): Dd = data deficient; LC = least concern, Vu = vulnerable, NT = near threatened; En = endangered; CR = critically endangered; Ne = not evaluated); population status according to IUCN (2023): environmental vulnerability score (EVS, low vulnerability species [L, 3-9], medium vulnerability species [M, 10-13], and high vulnerability species [H, 14-20] according to , , and Johnson et al [2017]). Townsend, 2007), Rhadinaea (García-Sotelo et al, 2021) or Lampropeltis (Burbrink et al, 2022). Also, in the case of lizards, in these regions the distribution of groups such as Xenosaurus (Nieto-Montes de Oca et al, 2017), Sceloporus (Leaché et al, 2016), Plestiodon and Scincella is presented in the same way (Brandley et al, 2012).…”

Sixty years of Halffter’s Mexican Transition Zone: a systematic review using bibliometric tools

“…6). Most of the analyzed papers (88.5%), however, have used the term to describe the study area or to use the MTZ or some of its provinces as areas of endemism for biogeographic analyses (e.g., García-Sotelo et al, 2021;Sánchez-Chávez et al, 2019;Schramm et al, 2021). Almost half of the papers (48.2%) use the conceptual background of the MTZ to explain or discuss the results, mainly as an explanation of the high diversity and endemicity because of the mixture of biotas and geological history (e.g., Anguiano-Constante et al, 2021;Ferrari et al, 2022;Ortiz-Brunel et al, 2021;Pérez-Hernández et al, 2022) or to refer to the role of the MTZ or some of its provinces as biogeographic barriers or routes of dispersal for plants or animals (Daza et al, 2009;Gutiérrez-Rodríguez et al, 2022;Lamas et al, 2014).…”

“…Testing the remaining cenocrons would help have a better understanding of their history and diversification in the MTZ. org/10.22201/ib.20078706e.2023.94.5114 Almost as frequent as the cladistic biogeographic analyses were the studies classified in the so-called eventbased biogeography, based on ancestral geographic range reconstruction, where Dispersal-Vicariance Analysis (DIVA or S-DIVA) (Lamas et al, 2014;Pérez-Miranda et al, 2020), Dispersal-Extinction-Cladogenesis (DEC) (García-Sotelo et al, 2021;Gutiérrez-Ortega et al, 2018) and BioGeoBEARS (Mason et al, 2018;Sánchez-Chávez et al, 2019;Schramm et al, 2021) were used to evaluate biogeographic models explaining the historical biogeography of single groups. For example, García-Sotelo et al (2021) used the results of a phylogenetic analysis to evaluate the role of orogenic events on the diversification of Rhadinaea snakes.…”

“…org/10.22201/ib.20078706e.2023.94.5114 Almost as frequent as the cladistic biogeographic analyses were the studies classified in the so-called eventbased biogeography, based on ancestral geographic range reconstruction, where Dispersal-Vicariance Analysis (DIVA or S-DIVA) (Lamas et al, 2014;Pérez-Miranda et al, 2020), Dispersal-Extinction-Cladogenesis (DEC) (García-Sotelo et al, 2021;Gutiérrez-Ortega et al, 2018) and BioGeoBEARS (Mason et al, 2018;Sánchez-Chávez et al, 2019;Schramm et al, 2021) were used to evaluate biogeographic models explaining the historical biogeography of single groups. For example, García-Sotelo et al (2021) used the results of a phylogenetic analysis to evaluate the role of orogenic events on the diversification of Rhadinaea snakes. They found that the uplifting of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and Chiapan-Guatemalan highlands promoted the northward and southward colonization followed by more recent independent colonization events towards other provinces of the MTZ and the Neotropical region.…”

Bridging the gap: A new species of arboreal Abronia (Squamata: Anguidae) from the Northern Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico

“…Hypothesized causes of this diversity remain poorly tested, but interrelated biological, geological, and climatic factors are likely at play [5,6]. Many authors generally agree that complex historical processes of mountain formation, together with paleoclimatic events, created biogeographic barriers correlated with speciation in many Middle American vertebrates [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Today, striking and emblematic species of birds [14,15], snakes [16,17], frogs [18,19] and salamanders [20,21] live in these mountain woodlands and nowhere else.…”