Publication details
Integrative phylogeography of rodents from Sudanian savanna
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Sudanian savanna forms a wide belt of more or less open habitats spreading from Sene- gal to western Ethiopia. Although several phylogeographic studies of species associa- ted with the Sudanian savanna have been published, there is still no clear agreement on the main evolutionary processes that have influenced the diversification of these spe- cies during the Plio-Pleistocene. Here we gathered recently published and new DNA sequence data from eight Sudanian savanna rodent taxa with the aim of analyzing si- multaneously their phylogeographic patterns. As a first step, we produced a well re- solved and time-calibrated phylogenetic tree of the whole family Muridae based on a supermatrix (10 genes) of 165 taxa using a novel set of calibration points (13 well documented fossil records). As a second step, we relied on one single Bayesian analy- sis to simultaneously date the divergences between georeferenced phylogeographical lineages within each of the nin model taxa. This approach allowed us to investigate the degree of synchrony between (both inter and intra-specific) lineage divergences. The inferred split events were also analyzed in the framework of known past clima- tic/environmental past events that occurred in this part of Africa. Altogether, the re- sults obtained following this meta-phylogeographic study provided new insights into the impact of the evolution of the African savanna on mammalian rodent communities as a whole. |