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Around the World in Eight Million Years: Historical Biogeography and Evolution of the Spray Zone Spider Amaurobioides (Araneae: Anyphaenidae).

ABSTRACT: Closely related organisms with transoceanic distributions have long been the focus of historical biogeography, prompting the question of whether long-distance dispersal, or tectonic-driven vicariance shaped their current distribution. Regarding the Southern Hemisphere continents, this question deals with the break-up of the Gondwanan landmass, which has also affected global wind and oceanic current patterns since the Miocene. With the advent of phylogenetic node age estimation and parametric bioinformatic advances, researchers have been able to disentangle historical evolutionary processes of taxa with greater accuracy. In this study, we used the coastal spider genus Amaurobioides to investigate the historical biogeographical and evolutionary processes that shaped the modern-day distribution of species of this exceptional genus of spiders. As the only genus of the subfamily Amaurobioidinae found on three Southern Hemisphere continents, its distribution is well-suited to study in the context of Gondwanic vicariance versus long-distance, transoceanic dispersal. Ancestral species of the genus Amaurobioides appear to have undergone several long-distance dispersal events followed by successful establishments and speciation, starting from the mid-Miocene through to the Pleistocene. The most recent common ancestor of all present-day Amaurobioides species is estimated to have originated in Africa after arriving from South America during the Miocene. From Africa the subsequent dispersals are likely to have taken place predominantly in an eastward direction. The long-distance dispersal events by Amaurobioides mostly involved transoceanic crossings, which we propose occurred by rafting, aided by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the West Wind Drift.

SUBMITTER: Ceccarelli FS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5061358 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Simple Summary Earwigs (Dermaptera) have their highest diversity in the tropical areas of the southern hemisphere, whereas the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere have relatively few species. This pattern has been considered a reflection of their origin in Gondwana, the supercontinent that grouped most of the land masses in today’s southern hemisphere, including Antarctica, South America, Africa and Madagascar. An analysis of the distributions of the major evolutionary lineages of earwigs supports the role of the Gondwanan breakup in determining the current patterns of their diversity, as well the influence of the Indian collision with the Eurasian plate. The dispersal into the Eurasian plate was largely constrained by the Himalayan orogenesis and the presence of colder temperatures. This climatic barrier was probably the most important factor that largely hampered the colonization of North America from South America. Abstract The Dermaptera are an insect order exhibiting their highest diversity in the tropical areas of the southern hemisphere. This pattern has been considered a reflection of a Gondwanan origin. However, this hypothesis has not been tested through analytical methods. In this paper, the world distribution of earwigs was analysed by using the ‘Cladistic Analysis of Distributions and Endemism’ (CADE), a method which groups areas of endemism on the basis of shared distributions and phylogenetic relationships among taxa. In addition, clustering techniques were applied to depict biotic relationships based on similarity indices. Results of CADE support the idea that Gondwanan fragmentation exerted a crucial role in shaping the current distribution of the main clades of earwigs. However, the relationships between India with South East Asia suggested a biotic interchange occurred after the Indian collision with the Eurasian plate. The overall scenario emerging from cluster analyses revealed a strong influence of dispersal events. Overall, the distribution of earwig major clades indicates that their biogeographical history was mainly characterized by vicariance events (led by the break-up of Gondwana) followed by large scale dispersal processes constrained by the Himalayan orogenesis and the presence of colder temperatures, which have largely hampered the colonization of the northern hemisphere.

Dataset Information

Around the World in Eight Million Years: Historical Biogeography and Evolution of the Spray Zone Spider Amaurobioides (Araneae: Anyphaenidae).

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