Molecular taxonomic identification and species-level phylogeny of the narrow-mouthed frogs of the genus<i>Rhombophryne</i>(Anura: Microhylidae: Cophylinae) from Madagascar

Belluardo, Francesco; Scherz, Mark D.; Santos, Bárbara; Andreone, Franco; Antonelli, Alexandre; Glaw, Frank; Muñoz-Pajares, A. Jesús; Randrianirina, Jasmin E.; Raselimanana, Achille P.; Vences, Miguel; Crottini, Angelica

doi:10.1080/14772000.2022.2039320

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 37 publications

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“…The colonisers that arrived subsequently thus had access to a vast and varied ecospace that enabled them to diversify widely, and generally continuously, at least until the last few million years (e.g. Samonds et al ., 2013; Burbrink et al ., 2019; Belluardo et al ., 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The colonisation of Madagascar by land‐bound vertebrates

Ali

2023

Biological Reviews

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Despite discussions extending back almost 160 years, the means by which Madagascar's iconic land vertebrates arrived on the island remains the focus of active debate. Three options have been considered: vicariance, range expansion across land bridges, and dispersal over water. The first assumes that a group (clade/lineage) occupied the island when it was connected with the other Gondwana landmasses in the Mesozoic. Causeways to Africa do not exist today, but have been proposed by some researchers for various times in the Cenozoic. Over‐water dispersal could be from rafting on floating vegetation (flotsam) or by swimming/drifting. A recent appraisal of the geological data supported the idea of vicariance, but found nothing to justify the notion of past causeways. Here we review the biological evidence for the mechanisms that explain the origins of 28 of Madagascar's land vertebrate clades [two other lineages (the geckos Geckolepis and Paragehyra) could not be included in the analysis due to phylogenetic uncertainties]. The podocnemid turtles and typhlopoid snakes are conspicuous for they appear to have arisen through a deep‐time vicariance event. The two options for the remaining 26 (16 reptile, five land‐bound‐mammal, and five amphibian), which arrived between the latest Cretaceous and the present, are dispersal across land bridges or over water. As these would produce very different temporal influx patterns, we assembled and analysed published arrival times for each of the groups. For all, a ‘colonisation interval’ was generated that was bracketed by its ‘stem‐old’ and ‘crown‐young’ tree‐node ages; in two instances, the ranges were refined using palaeontological data. The synthesis of these intervals for all clades, which we term a colonisation profile, has a distinctive shape that can be compared, statistically, to various models, including those that assume the arrivals were focused in time. The analysis leads us to reject the various land bridge models (which would show temporal concentrations) and instead supports the idea of dispersal over water (temporally random). Therefore, the biological evidence is now in agreement with the geological evidence, as well as the filtered taxonomic composition of the fauna, in supporting over‐water dispersal as the mechanism that explains all but two of Madagascar's land‐vertebrate groups.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The colonisation of Madagascar by land‐bound vertebrates

Ali

2023

Biological Reviews

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A race against extinction: The challenge to overcome the Linnean amphibian shortfall in tropical biodiversity hotspots

Carné,

Vieites

2024

Diversity and Distributions

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AimThere is an urgent need to explore, characterize, describe and preserve as many species as possible to prevent their decline. Tropical biodiversity hotspots harbour most of the known land diversity and vast amounts of undiscovered and undescribed species. Here, we quantify the taxonomically unassessed amphibian species richness in Madagascar, one of the best‐studied and explored tropical hotspots worldwide, to identify knowledge gaps and conservation implications.LocationMadagascar.Time PeriodPresent.Major Taxa StudiedAmphibians.MethodsWe used the Madagascar amphibian fauna as a model to unveil neglected diversity by analysing 10,873 mitochondrial sequences using species delimitation algorithms and incorporating all previously published bioacoustics, distributional, morphological and nuclear data with an integrative approach.ResultsBesides the currently described 413 species, we identified 408 divergent lineages. Among this, 310 fit the category of candidate species pending a taxonomic assessment, while 98 are considered deep conspecific lineages. These figures suggest that species richness could be twice as high as represented in the current taxonomy. Geographically, most of these candidate species occur in well‐studied areas within the island.Main ConclusionsDespite being one of the best‐studied and explored tropical countries worldwide for amphibians, we found that many species are awaiting a taxonomic assessment in Madagascar. Paradoxically, this unassessed diversity concentrates on highly explored regions, emphasizing the importance of exploring and inventorying new areas. Our results highlight the magnitude of the Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls, affecting both species richness estimates and the distribution ranges and biogeographic setting known for this fauna. Current conservation efforts should consider this novel diversity and unexplored areas as they will likely harbour yet many new species to be discovered. We expect similar patterns across less studied tropical realms and encourage researchers to perform such studies in different clades before this neglected biodiversity becomes irremediably lost.

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Molecular taxonomic identification and species-level phylogeny of the narrow-mouthed frogs of the genusRhombophryne(Anura: Microhylidae: Cophylinae) from Madagascar

Cited by 2 publications

References 37 publications

The colonisation of Madagascar by land‐bound vertebrates

The colonisation of Madagascar by land‐bound vertebrates

A race against extinction: The challenge to overcome the Linnean amphibian shortfall in tropical biodiversity hotspots

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