Relative time scales reveal multiple origins of parallel disjunct distributions of African caecilian amphibians.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Loader SP
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2396187 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Relative time scales reveal multiple origins of parallel disjunct distributions of African caecilian amphibians.
Loader Simon P SP Pisani Davide D Cotton James A JA Gower David J DJ Day Julia J JJ Wilkinson Mark M
Biology letters 20071001 5
Parallel patterns of distribution in different lineages suggest a common cause. Explanations in terms of a single biogeographic event often imply contemporaneous diversifications. Phylogenies with absolute time scales provide the most obvious means of testing temporal components of biogeographic hypotheses but, in their absence, the sequence of diversification events and whether any could have been contemporaneous can be tested with relative date estimates. Tests using relative time scales have ...[more]
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