Relaxed molecular clock provides evidence for long-distance dispersal of Nothofagus (southern beech)

Nothofagus (southern beech), with an 80-million-year-old fossil record, has become iconic as a plant genus whose ancient Gondwanan relationships reach back into the Cretaceous era. Closely associated with Wegener's theory of “Kontinentaldrift”, Nothofagus has been regarded as the “key genus in plant biogeography”. This paradigm has the New Zealand species as passengers on a Moa's Ark that rafted away from other landmasses following the breakup of Gondwana. An alternative explanation for the current transoceanic distribution of species seems almost inconceivable given that Nothofagus seeds are generally thought to be poorly suited for dispersal across large distances or oceans. Here we test the Moa's Ark hypothesis using relaxed molecular clock methods in the analysis of a 7.2-kb fragment of the chloroplast genome. Our analyses provide the first unequivocal molecular clock evidence that, whilst some Nothofagus transoceanic distributions are consistent with vicariance, trans-Tasman Sea distributions can only be explained by long-distance dispersal. Thus, our analyses support the interpretation of an absence of Lophozonia and Fuscospora pollen types in the New Zealand Cretaceous fossil record as evidence for Tertiary dispersals of Nothofagus to New Zealand. Our findings contradict those from recent cladistic analyses of biogeographic data that have concluded transoceanic Nothofagus distributions can only be explained by vicariance events and subsequent extinction. They indicate that the biogeographic history of Nothofagus is more complex than envisaged under opposing polarised views expressed in the ongoing controversy over the relevance of dispersal and vicariance for explaining plant biodiversity. They provide motivation and justification for developing more complex hypotheses that seek to explain the origins of Southern Hemisphere biota.     

The evolutionary diversification of parrots supports a taxon pulse model with multiple trans-oceanic dispersal events and local radiations

Vicariance is thought to have played a major role in the evolution of modern parrots. However, as the relationships especially of the African taxa remained mostly unresolved, it has been difficult to draw firm conclusions about the roles of dispersal and vicariance. Our analyses using the broadest taxon sampling of old world parrots ever based on 3219 bp of three nuclear genes revealed well-resolved and congruent phylogenetic hypotheses. Agapornis of Africa and Madagascar was found to be the sister group to Loriculus of Australasia and Indo-Malayasia and together they clustered with the Australasian Loriinae, Cyclopsittacini and Melopsittacus. Poicephalus and Psittacus from mainland Africa formed the sister group of the Neotropical Arini and Coracopsis from Madagascar and adjacent islands may be the closest relative of Psittrichas from New Guinea. These biogeographic relationships are best explained by independent colonization of the African continent via trans-oceanic dispersal from Australasia and Antarctica in the Paleogene following what may have been vicariance events in the late Cretaceous and/or early Paleogene. Our data support a taxon pulse model for the diversification of parrots whereby trans-oceanic dispersal played a more important role than previously thought and was the prerequisite for range expansion into new continents.     

Intercontinental dispersal by a microendemic burrowing reptile (Dibamidae)

Intercontinental dispersal via land bridge connections has been important in the biogeographic history of many Holarctic plant and animal groups. Likewise, some groups appear to have accomplished trans-oceanic dispersal via rafting. Dibamid lizards are a clade of poorly known fossorial, essentially limbless species traditionally split into two geographically disjunct genera: Dibamus comprises approximately 20 Southeast Asian species, many of which have very limited geographical distributions, and the monotypic genus Anelytropsis occupies a small area of northeastern Mexico. Although no formal phylogeny of the group exists, a sister-taxon relationship between the two genera has been assumed based on biogeographic considerations. We used DNA sequence data from one mitochondrial and six nuclear protein-coding genes to construct a phylogeny of Dibamidae and to estimate divergence times within the group. Surprisingly, sampled Dibamus species form two deeply divergent, morphologically conserved and geographically concordant clades, one of which is the sister taxon of Anelytropsis papillosus. Our analyses indicate Palaearctic to Nearctic Beringian dispersal in the Late Palaeocene to Eocene. Alternatively, a trans-Pacific rafting scenario would extend the upper limit on dispersal to the Late Cretaceous. Either scenario constitutes a remarkable long-distance dispersal in what would seem an unlikely candidate.     

Biogeography of worm lizards (Amphisbaenia) driven by end-Cretaceous mass extinction

Worm lizards (Amphisbaenia) are burrowing squamates that live as subterranean predators. Their underground existence should limit dispersal, yet they are widespread throughout the Americas, Europe and Africa. This pattern was traditionally explained by continental drift, but molecular clocks suggest a Cenozoic diversification, long after the break-up of Pangaea, implying dispersal. Here, we describe primitive amphisbaenians from the North American Palaeocene, including the oldest known amphisbaenian, and provide new and older molecular divergence estimates for the clade, showing that worm lizards originated in North America, then radiated and dispersed in the Palaeogene following the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K-Pg) extinction. This scenario implies at least three trans-oceanic dispersals: from North America to Europe, from North America to Africa and from Africa to South America. Amphisbaenians provide a striking case study in biogeography, suggesting that the role of continental drift in biogeography may be overstated. Instead, these patterns support Darwin and Wallace''s hypothesis that the geographical ranges of modern clades result from dispersal, including oceanic rafting. Mass extinctions may facilitate dispersal events by eliminating competitors and predators that would otherwise hinder establishment of dispersing populations, removing biotic barriers to dispersal.     

Explosive avian radiations and multi-directional dispersal across Wallacea: evidence from the Campephagidae and other Crown Corvida (Aves)

The systematic relationships among avian families within Crown Corvida have been poorly studied so far and as such been of limited use for biogeographic interpretations. The group has its origin in Australia and is thought to have colonized Africa and the New World via Asia beginning some 35 Mya when terranes of Australian origin approached Asian landmasses. Recent detailed tectonic mapping of the origin of land masses in the region around Wallace's line have revealed a particularly complex movement of terranes over the last 20-30 Myr. Thus the biogeographic dispersal pattern of Crown Corvida is a particularly exciting case for linking vicariance and dispersal events with Earth history. Here we examine phylogenetic affinities among 72 taxa covering a broad range of genera in the basal radiations within Crown Corvida with an emphasis on Campephagidae and Pachycephalidae. Bayesian analyses of nuclear DNA sequence data identified the family Campephagidae as monophyletic but the large genus Coracina is not. Within the family Pachycephalidae the genera Pachycephala and Colluricincla are paraphyletic with respect to each other. The resulting phylogeny suggests that patterns of dispersal across Wallace's line are complex and began at least 25 Mya. We find evidence of explosive radiations and multi-directional dispersal within the last 10 Myr, and three independent long distance ocean dispersal events between Wallacea and Africa at 10-15 Mya. Furthermore, the study reveals that in the Campephagidae a complex series of dispersal events rather than vicariance is the most likely explanation for the current biogeographic pattern in the region.     

Dispersal of African mammals in Eurasia during the Cenozoic: Ways and whys

Several groups of mammals originated in Africa and then immigrated to Eurasia during some intervals of the Cenozoic, thus greatly contributing to the mammalian biodiversity in Eurasia. Nevertheless, the African components of Eurasian mammalian faunas have had variable success in their diversification and survival. The Afro-Arabian plate remained separated from Eurasia by the Tethyan seaway, which was definitely closed in the Burdigalian, some 20 myr ago. Before its closure, the marine barrier between the Afro-Arabian and Eurasian plates did not totally prevent mammalian exchanges between these landmasses, as documented by the arrival of rodents and primates in Africa in the late Paleocene-early Eocene, the dispersal of embrithopods on both sides of the Tethyan seaway during the Eocene, and the immigration of elephantoids from Africa to Asia in late Oligocene. These events seem to be restricted to some groups of mammals, which apparently had abilities to use sweepstake dispersal routes. The massive mammalian dispersal from Africa to Eurasia started sometimes in the early Miocene, involving several groups of African mammals, in particular proboscideans, hyracoids, tubulidentates, and anthropoids. This contribution discusses the timing of these events under the light of recent discoveries of Africa-originated mammals in Eurasia. The impact of the evolving paleogeography of the area situated between the Afro-Arabian and Eurasian plates on the mammalian dispersal is reconsidered. The dispersal of land mammals from Africa to Eurasia is controlled not only by the paleogeographic changes (sea level changes, dispersal routes, terrestrial bridges, etc.), but also by climatic factors that modified the environments of terrestrial mammals, favoring or not the occurrence of dispersal routes and/or the enlargement or restriction of climatic belts and biogeographic provinces to which these mammals were adapted. These questions are discussed taking into account the present knowledge of the record of the Africa-originated mammals in Eurasia during the Cenozoic times.     

Evidence of Sundaland’s subsidence requires revisiting its biogeography

It is widely accepted that sea level changes intermittently inundated the Sunda Shelf throughout the Pleistocene, separating Java, Sumatra and Borneo from the Malay Peninsula and from each other. On this basis, the dynamics of the biodiversity hotspot of Sundaland is consistently regarded as solely contingent on glacial sea level oscillations, with interglacial highstands creating intermittent dispersal barriers between disjunct landmasses. However, recent findings on the geomorphology of the currently submerged Sunda shelf suggest that it subsided during the Pleistocene and that, over the Late Pliocene and Quaternary, is was never submerged prior to Marine Isotope Stage 11 (MIS 11, 400 ka). This would have enabled the dispersal of terrestrial organisms regardless of sea level variations until 400 ka and hampered movements thereafter, at least during interglacial periods. Existing phylogeographic data for terrestrial organisms conform to this scenario: available divergence time estimates reveal an 8- to 9-fold increase in the rate of vicariance between landmasses of Sundaland after 400 ka, corresponding to the onset of episodic flooding of the Sunda shelf. These results highlight how reconsidering the paleogeographic setting of Sundaland challenges understanding the mechanisms generating Southeast Asian biodiversity.     

Artificial selection for timing of dispersal in predatory mites yields lines that differ in prey exploitation strategies

Dispersal is the main determinant of the dynamics and persistence of predator–prey metapopulations. When defining dispersal as a predator exploitation strategy, theory predicts the existence of a continuum of strategies: from some dispersal throughout the predator–prey interaction (the Milker strategy) to dispersal only after the prey had been exterminated (the Killer strategy). These dispersal strategies relate to differences in prey exploitation at the population level, with more dispersal leading to longer predator–prey interaction times and higher cumulative numbers of dispersing predators. In the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis, empirical studies have shown genetic variation for prey exploitation as well as for the timing of aerial dispersal in the presence of prey. Here, we test whether artificial selection for lines that differ in timing of dispersal also results in these lines differing in prey exploitation. Six rounds of selection for early or late dispersal resulted in predator lines displaying earlier or later dispersal. Moreover, it resulted—at the population level—in predicted differences in the local predator–prey interaction time and in the cumulative numbers of dispersers in a population dynamics experiment. We pose that timing of dispersal is a heritable trait that can be selected in P. persimilis, which results in lines that show quantitative differences in local predator–prey dynamics. This opens ways to experimentally investigate the evolution of alternative prey exploitation strategies and to select for predator strains with prey exploitation strategies resulting in better biological control.     

Modeling Species Distributions from Heterogeneous Data for the Biogeographic Regionalization of the European Bryophyte Flora

The definition of biogeographic regions provides a fundamental framework for a range of basic and applied questions in biogeography, evolutionary biology, systematics and conservation. Previous research suggested that environmental forcing results in highly congruent regionalization patterns across taxa, but that the size and number of regions depends on the dispersal ability of the taxa considered. We produced a biogeographic regionalization of European bryophytes and hypothesized that (1) regions defined for bryophytes would differ from those defined for other taxa due to the highly specific eco-physiology of the group and (2) their high dispersal ability would result in the resolution of few, large regions. Species distributions were recorded using 10,000 km² MGRS pixels. Because of the lack of data across large portions of the area, species distribution models employing macroclimatic variables as predictors were used to determine the potential composition of empty pixels. K-means clustering analyses of the pixels based on their potential species composition were employed to define biogeographic regions. The optimal number of regions was determined by v-fold cross-validation and Moran’s I statistic. The spatial congruence of the regions identified from their potential bryophyte assemblages with large-scale vegetation patterns is at odds with our primary hypothesis. This reinforces the notion that post-glacial migration patterns might have been much more similar in bryophytes and vascular plants than previously thought. The substantially lower optimal number of clusters and the absence of nested patterns within the main biogeographic regions, as compared to identical analyses in vascular plants, support our second hypothesis. The modelling approach implemented here is, however, based on many assumptions that are discussed but can only be tested when additional data on species distributions become available, highlighting the substantial importance of developing integrated mapping projects for all taxa in key biogeographically areas of Europe, and the Mediterranean peninsulas in particular.     

Riding the Kuroshio Current: Stepping stone dispersal of the Okinawa tree lizard across the East Asian Island Arc

Aim

Located hundreds of kilometres offshore of continental mainland Asia, the extremely high level of land vertebrate endemism in the East Asian Island Arc provides an excellent opportunity to test hypotheses regarding biogeographic processes and speciation. In this study, we aim to test alternative explanations for lineage diversification (vicariance versus dispersal models), and further develop a temporal framework for diversification in our focal taxon, which is consistent with the known age of these islands. We achieve these tests by investigating the historical biogeography of the Okinawa tree lizard (Japalura polygonata), one of the few widely‐distributed reptiles across this archipelago.

Location

The East Asian Island Arc: (1) Central Ryukyu (Amami and Okinawa groups); (2) Southern Ryukyu (Miyako and Yaeyama groups); (3) Taiwan and adjacent islands.

Methods

A total of 246 tissues were sampled from 10 localities in the Ryukyu archipelago and 17 localities in Taiwan, covering the entire distributional range of this species, including all subspecies. DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b, 16S ribosomal RNA, nuclear BACH‐1 and RAG‐1 genes (total: 4,684 bp) were obtained from these samples. We used maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods to infer phylogeny and divergence time, and used a model‐fitting method of biogeographical inference to estimate ancestral range evolution.

Results

Multiple lines of evidence combine to identify a general pattern of dispersal‐mediated diversification northward through the archipelago, following initial dispersal from Taiwan. These included (1) a phylogenetic estimate, revealing a sequential, south‐to‐north branching pattern; (2) ancestral range estimation, inferring multiple overseas dispersals and subsequent colonization of new landmasses; and (3) a reduction in genetic variation observed in successively‐diverging lineages, decreasing from Taiwan northward, towards more remote islands. These results provide strong statistical support for an interpretation of successive bouts of dispersal via the powerful, well‐documented, south‐to‐north Kuroshio Current. Estimation of divergence times suggests that most clades in southern Ryukyu and Taiwan diverged early, giving rise to lineages that have remained isolated, and that more recently‐diverged lineages then colonized northward to subsequently occupy the landmasses of the Central Ryukyu archipelago.

Main conclusions

Our general inference of biogeographic history in Japalura polygonata suggested that this species originated on Taiwan and the Yaeyama group, and arrived at its current distribution in Miyako, Okinawa, Toku and Amami islands by a series of stepping‐stone dispersals, which we report for the first time for a terrestrial vertebrate endemic to this region.     

Relaxed Molecular Clock Provides Evidence for Long-Distance Dispersal of Nothofagus (Southern Beech)

Nothofagus (southern beech), with an 80-million-year-old fossil record, has become iconic as a plant genus whose ancient Gondwanan relationships reach back into the Cretaceous era. Closely associated with Wegener's theory of “Kontinentaldrift”, Nothofagus has been regarded as the “key genus in plant biogeography”. This paradigm has the New Zealand species as passengers on a Moa's Ark that rafted away from other landmasses following the breakup of Gondwana. An alternative explanation for the current transoceanic distribution of species seems almost inconceivable given that Nothofagus seeds are generally thought to be poorly suited for dispersal across large distances or oceans. Here we test the Moa's Ark hypothesis using relaxed molecular clock methods in the analysis of a 7.2-kb fragment of the chloroplast genome. Our analyses provide the first unequivocal molecular clock evidence that, whilst some Nothofagus transoceanic distributions are consistent with vicariance, trans-Tasman Sea distributions can only be explained by long-distance dispersal. Thus, our analyses support the interpretation of an absence of Lophozonia and Fuscospora pollen types in the New Zealand Cretaceous fossil record as evidence for Tertiary dispersals of Nothofagus to New Zealand. Our findings contradict those from recent cladistic analyses of biogeographic data that have concluded transoceanic Nothofagus distributions can only be explained by vicariance events and subsequent extinction. They indicate that the biogeographic history of Nothofagus is more complex than envisaged under opposing polarised views expressed in the ongoing controversy over the relevance of dispersal and vicariance for explaining plant biodiversity. They provide motivation and justification for developing more complex hypotheses that seek to explain the origins of Southern Hemisphere biota.     

Extant primitively segmented spiders have recently diversified from an ancient lineage

Living fossils are lineages that have retained plesiomorphic traits through long time periods. It is expected that such lineages have both originated and diversified long ago. Such expectations have recently been challenged in some textbook examples of living fossils, notably in extant cycads and coelacanths. Using a phylogenetic approach, we tested the patterns of the origin and diversification of liphistiid spiders, a clade of spiders considered to be living fossils due to their retention of arachnid plesiomorphies and their exclusive grouping in Mesothelae, an ancient clade sister to all modern spiders. Facilitated by original sampling throughout their Asian range, we here provide the phylogenetic framework necessary for reconstructing liphistiid biogeographic history. All phylogenetic analyses support the monophyly of Liphistiidae and of eight genera. As the fossil evidence supports a Carboniferous Euramerican origin of Mesothelae, our dating analyses postulate a long eastward over-land dispersal towards the Asian origin of Liphistiidae during the Palaeogene (39–58 Ma). Contrary to expectations, diversification within extant liphistiid genera is relatively recent, in the Neogene and Late Palaeogene (4–24 Ma). While no over-water dispersal events are needed to explain their evolutionary history, the history of liphistiid spiders has the potential to play prominently in vicariant biogeographic studies.     

Geologic Drivers of Late Ordovician Faunal Change in Laurentia: Investigating Links between Tectonics,Speciation, and Biotic Invasions

Geologic process, including tectonics and global climate change, profoundly impact the evolution of life because they have the propensity to facilitate episodes of biogeographic differentiation and influence patterns of speciation. We investigate causal links between a dramatic faunal turnover and two dominant geologic processes operating within Laurentia during the Late Ordovician: the Taconian Orogeny and GICE related global cooling. We utilize a novel approach for elucidating the relationship between biotic and geologic changes using a time-stratigraphic, species-level evolutionary framework for articulated brachiopods from North America. Phylogenetic biogeographic analyses indicate a fundamental shift in speciation mode—from a vicariance to dispersal dominated macroevolutionary regime—across the boundary between the Sandbian to Katian Stages. This boundary also corresponds to the onset of renewed intensification of tectonic activity and mountain building, the development of an upwelling zone that introduced cool, nutrient-rich waters into the epieric seas of eastern Laurentia, and the GICE isotopic excursion. The synchronicity of these dramatic geologic, oceanographic, and macroevolutionary changes supports the influence of geologic events on biological evolution. Together, the renewed tectonic activity and oceanographic changes facilitated fundamental changes in habitat structure in eastern North America that reduced opportunities for isolation and vicariance. They also facilitated regional biotic dispersal of taxa that led to the subsequent establishment of extrabasinal (=invasive) species and may have led to a suppression of speciation within Laurentian faunas. Phylogenetic biogeographic analysis further indicates that the Richmondian Invasion was a multidirectional regional invasion event that involved taxa immigrating into the Cincinnati region from basins located near the continental margins and within the continental interior.     

Plant dispersal N.E.W.S from New Zealand

Although New Zealand separated from Gondwana during the late Cretaceous (80 million years ago) it shares strong floristic affinities with other Southern Hemisphere landmasses. For 150 years, biogeographers have debated whether these similarities reflect the ancient Gondwanan connection or subsequent dispersal events. Molecular phylogenies are providing new insights into the history of Southern Hemisphere plant groups. These studies show that many plant lineages are recent arrivals in New Zealand, diversifying rapidly and then travelling to other Southern Hemisphere landmasses.     

Molecular and fossil evidence place the origin of cichlid fishes long after Gondwanan rifting

Cichlid fishes are a key model system in the study of adaptive radiation, speciation and evolutionary developmental biology. More than 1600 cichlid species inhabit freshwater and marginal marine environments across several southern landmasses. This distributional pattern, combined with parallels between cichlid phylogeny and sequences of Mesozoic continental rifting, has led to the widely accepted hypothesis that cichlids are an ancient group whose major biogeographic patterns arose from Gondwanan vicariance. Although the Early Cretaceous (ca 135 Ma) divergence of living cichlids demanded by the vicariance model now represents a key calibration for teleost molecular clocks, this putative split pre-dates the oldest cichlid fossils by nearly 90 Myr. Here, we provide independent palaeontological and relaxed-molecular-clock estimates for the time of cichlid origin that collectively reject the antiquity of the group required by the Gondwanan vicariance scenario. The distribution of cichlid fossil horizons, the age of stratigraphically consistent outgroup lineages to cichlids and relaxed-clock analysis of a DNA sequence dataset consisting of 10 nuclear genes all deliver overlapping estimates for crown cichlid origin centred on the Palaeocene (ca 65–57 Ma), substantially post-dating the tectonic fragmentation of Gondwana. Our results provide a revised macroevolutionary time scale for cichlids, imply a role for dispersal in generating the observed geographical distribution of this important model clade and add to a growing debate that questions the dominance of the vicariance paradigm of historical biogeography.     

Gondwanan break-up: legacies of a lost world?

Fierce debate surrounds the history of organisms in the southern hemisphere; did Gondwanan break-up produce ocean barriers that imposed distribution patterns on phylogenies (vicariance)? Or have organisms modified their distributions through trans-oceanic dispersal? Recent advances in biogeographical theory suggest that the current focus on vicariance versus dispersal is too narrow because it ignores 'geodispersal' (i.e. expansion of species into areas when geographical barriers disappear), extinction and sampling errors. Geodispersal produces multiple, conflicting vicariance patterns, and extinction and sampling errors destroy vicariance patterns. This perspective suggests that it is more difficult to detect vicariance than trans-oceanic dispersal and that specialized methods must be applied if an unbiased understanding of southern hemisphere biogeography is to be achieved.     

Trans-oceanic and endemic origins of the small minnow mayflies (Ephemeroptera, Baetidae) of Madagascar

We investigated the relative importance of dispersal and vicariance in forming the Madagascar insect fauna, sequencing approximately 2300bp from three rRNA gene regions to investigate the phylogeny of Afrotropical small minnow mayflies (Ephemeroptera: Baetidae). Six lineages contained trans-oceanic sister taxa, and variation in genetic divergence between sister taxa revealed relationships that range from very recent dispersal to ancient vicariance. Dispersal was most recent and frequent in species that spend the larval stage in standing water, adding to evidence that these evolutionarily unstable habitats may select for ecological traits that increase dispersal in insects. Ancestral state likelihood analysis suggested at least one Afrotropical lineage had its origin in Madagascar, demonstrating that unidirectional dispersal from a continental source may be too simplistic. We conclude that the Malagasy mayfly fauna should be considered in a biogeographical context that extends beyond Madagascar itself, encompassing trans-oceanic dispersal within multiple lineages.     

The biogeographic history of the relictual Gondwanan lineage of Australian burrowing crayfish

Biogeographic investigations of Gondwanan mesic Australian fauna are scarce. The burrowing clade of Australian freshwater crayfish represent an ideal group to provide biogeographic inferences, due to their extensive distribution across the continent and their presumed ancient origin. This study tested the competing hypotheses of a ‘early’ versus ‘late’ origin of this clade, coinciding with the early or late fragmentation of Gondwana, respectively. The biogeographic history of this group was investigated through: (a) examination of the phylogenetic relationships between the seven extant taxon groups; (b) reconstruction of four species trees, each using a different calibration method; and (c) reconstruction of ancestral ranges and correlation of estimated dispersal and vicariance events with historical geological data to propose plausible mechanisms responsible for driving diversification. The phylogenetic relationships between the taxon groups were generally well supported (although some uncertainty exists for the oldest genera), and all calibration methods produced concordant results. The hypothesis that the clade arose during the early fragmentation of Gondwana in southern Australia is supported. Divergence between the extant taxa likely resulted from a combination of both short- and long-distance dispersal events (often followed by later vicariance), coincident with phases of sea level oscillation and changing climate continuing into the Eocene.

     

Range size: disentangling current traits and phylogenetic and biogeographic factors

The range size of a species can be determined by its current traits and by phylogenetic and biogeographic factors. However, only rarely have these factors been studied in combination. We use data on the geographic range sizes of all 26 Sylvia warblers to explicitly test whether range size was determined by current species-specific traits (e.g., body size, dispersal ability), phylogenetic factors (e.g., age of the lineage), or environmental, biogeographic factors (e.g., latitudinal position of the range). The results demonstrated that current traits and phylogenetic and biogeographic factors were interrelated. While a number of factors were significant in simple regression analyses, only one factor determined range size in the multiple regression analyses--dispersal ability. Species with better dispersal ability had larger ranges than species with poorer dispersal ability. Apparent increases of range size with latitude or with the age of the species resulted from correlations with dispersal ability. While the most significant factor that influences the range size of a group of species might differ from one group to the next, these results demonstrate that studies that focus only on a single, for example, phylogenetic, factor might yield misleading results.     

New Guinea highland origin of a widespread arthropod supertramp

The biologically and geologically extremely diverse archipelagos of Wallacea, Australasia and Oceania have long stimulated ecologists and evolutionary biologists. Yet, few molecular phylogenetic analyses of the terrestrial fauna have been carried out to understand the evolutionary patterns. We use dense taxon and character sampling of more than 7000 bp DNA sequence data for a group of diving beetles ranging from the Holarctic throughout Asia to as far east as French Polynesia. We here show that an ecologically diverse, common and widespread (Portugal to New Zealand) arthropod supertramp species originated in the highlands of New Guinea, ca 6.0–2.7 Myr ago. The approximately 25 closely related species are narrow endemics in Australasia/Oceania. The ancestor of this clade colonized that region from Eurasia ca 9–7 Myr ago. Our finding contradicts the widely held view of local endemism as an evolutionary dead end, as we find multiple peripatric speciation events within the Pleistocene and complex colonization patterns between the Oriental and Australian zoogeographic regions, including the recolonization of Eurasia, jumping across Wallace''s line and colonization of continental Australia out of New Guinea. Our study strongly highlights the importance of dispersal over water gaps in shaping biogeographic patterns.