scholarly journals Back to Gondwanaland: can ancient vicariance explain (some) Indian Ocean disjunct plant distributions?

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 20150086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Pirie ◽  
Glenn Litsios ◽  
Dirk U. Bellstedt ◽  
Nicolas Salamin ◽  
Jonathan Kissling
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Continental Drift ◽  
Molecular Dating ◽  
Long Distance Dispersal ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Strong Assumption ◽  
Plant Groups ◽  
Age Constraints

Oceans, or other wide expanses of inhospitable environment, interrupt present day distributions of many plant groups. Using molecular dating techniques, generally incorporating fossil evidence, we can estimate when such distributions originated. Numerous dating analyses have recently precipitated a paradigm shift in the general explanations for the phenomenon, away from older geological causes, such as continental drift, in favour of more recent, long-distance dispersal (LDD). For example, the ‘Gondwanan vicariance’ scenario has been dismissed in various studies of Indian Ocean disjunct distributions. We used the gentian tribe Exaceae to reassess this scenario using molecular dating with minimum (fossil), maximum (geological), secondary (from wider analyses) and hypothesis-driven age constraints. Our results indicate that ancient vicariance cannot be ruled out as an explanation for the early origins of Exaceae across Africa, Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent unless a strong assumption is made about the maximum age of Gentianales. However, both the Gondwanan scenario and the available evidence suggest that there were also several, more recent, intercontinental dispersals during the diversification of the group.

Graphis and Allographa (lichenized Ascomycota: Graphidaceae) in Sri Lanka, with six new species and a biogeographical comparison investigating a potential signature of the ‘biotic ferry’ species interchange

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 515-559
Author(s):  
Gothamie WEERAKOON ◽  
André APTROOT ◽  
Robert LÜCKING ◽  
Omal ARACHCHIGE ◽  
Siril WIJESUNDARA
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Species Composition ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Long Distance Dispersal ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The North ◽  
First Time

AbstractWe provide an updated survey for Sri Lanka of species of Graphis sensu Staiger, recently divided into Graphis s. str. and Allographa, including brief descriptions and a key to all 124 species currently known. Six new species are described: Allographa bambusicola Weerakoon, Lücking & Aptroot, a bambusicolous Allographa with entire labia, a laterally carbonized excipulum, 80–100 × 15–17 µm large, muriform ascospores and a rather thick, irregularly verrucose lateral thalline margin of the lirellae; A. weerasooriyana Weerakoon, Arachchige & Lücking, a corticolous Allographa resembling A. rustica Kremp. in overall anatomy and chemistry, but with a verrucose thalline margin of the lirellae and labia not distinctly raised above the thalline margin; Graphis flosculifera Weerakoon, Lücking & Aptroot, a corticolous Graphis resembling G. insulana but differing in the unique disposition of the lirellae and the slightly more elongate ascospores; G. rajapakshana Weerakoon, Lücking & Aptroot, a corticolous Graphis resembling G. desquamescens, including in ascospore size, but with lirellae with a distinct lateral thalline margin; G. rimosothallina Weerakoon, Lücking & Aptroot, a corticolous Graphis with a thick, uneven, rimose thallus and Fissurina-like lirellae, a completely carbonized excipulum and transversely 7-septate ascospores, 32–37 × 8–10 µm; and G. thunsinhalayensis Weerakoon, Arachchige & Lücking, a corticolous Graphis resembling G. subalbostriata but with smaller ascospores and lacking white lines between the striae of the labia. We also validate the name G. verrucoserpens Lücking. A total of 106 species are reported here for the first time from Sri Lanka. A biogeographical comparison with two other well-sampled countries (Costa Rica and Thailand) revealed a significantly higher similarity in species composition with Costa Rica than between Thailand and Costa Rica, suggesting a potential signature of the ‘biotic ferry’ hypothesis, that is the migration of lineages from Gondwana (partly corresponding to the modern Neotropics) via the north-eastwards drifting Indian subcontinent and subsequent interchange with Laurasia (partly corresponding to the modern eastern Paleotropics). However, the evolutionary timeline of the clades involved does not support this hypothesis and suggests an alternative explanation of geologically more recent mid- to long-distance dispersal.

The genus Dirina (Roccellaceae, Arthoniales) revisited

2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders TEHLER ◽  
Damien ERTZ ◽  
Martin IRESTEDT
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Continental Drift ◽  
New Combinations ◽  
Phylogenetic Hypothesis ◽  
Long Distance Dispersal ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Incertae Sedis ◽  
Asexual Morphs ◽  
Β Tubulin

AbstractDirina (Roccellaceae, Arthoniales) is a monophyletic genus of crustose, saxicolous or corticolous lichenized fungi. Twenty-four species are accepted in the genus, including nine new species: Dirina angolana, D. arabica, D. astridae, D. canariensis, D. indica, D. madagascariensis, D. pacifica, D. pallescens and D. sorocarpa. A phylogenetic hypothesis is presented based on data from four molecular markers, β-tubulin, ITS 1 and 2, nuLSU and RPB2, including all recognized Dirina species worldwide. New combinations proposed include Dirina badia for Roccellina badia, Dirina jamesii for Roccellina jamesii, Dirina candida for Chiodecton candidum and Dirina teichiodes for Lecidea teichiodes. Two species are reinstated: Dirina approximata and D. monothalamia (as a new name of Chiodecton africanum). Asexual morphs described earlier at the rank forma are no longer recognized as taxonomic units viz., Dirina catalinariae f. sorediata, D. insulana f. sorediata, D. massiliensis f. sorediata, D. paradoxa ssp. paradoxa f. sorediata and D. massiliensis f. aponina. One species, Dirina calcicola, is transferred to Fulvophyton and two other species, Dirina insulae-howensis and Dirina neozelandica, are transferred to Schismatomma. Dirina follmannii is not accepted in Dirina and placed as incertae sedis. A key to the species of Dirina is provided. Vicariance through plate tectonics and continental drift versus long distance dispersal to explain biogeographical patterns is discussed.

scholarly journals Jurassic primates, immobile ducks and other oddities: a reply to Heads’ review of The Monkey’s Voyage

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan de Queiroz
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Molecular Dating ◽  
Long Distance Dispersal ◽  
Central Pacific ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Reasonable Explanation

In The Monkey’s Voyage, I focused on the issue of disjunct distributions, and, in particular, on the burgeoning support from molecular-dating studies for long-distance dispersal over vicariance as the most reasonable explanation for many (but by no means all) distributions broken up by oceans. Michael Heads’ assessment of the book is founded on his long-standing belief, following Croizat, that long-distance dispersal is an insignificant process and, therefore, that disjunctions are virtually always attributable to vicariance. In holding to these notions, Heads offered a series of unsound arguments. In particular, to preserve an ‘all-vicariance’ perspective, he presented a distorted view of the nature of long-distance dispersal, misrepresented current applications of fossil calibrations in molecular-dating studies, ignored methodological biases in such studies that often favour vicariance hypotheses, repeatedly invoked irrelevant geological reconstructions, and, most strikingly, showed a cavalier approach to evolutionary timelines by pushing the origins of many groups back to unreasonably ancient ages. The result was a succession of implausible histories for particular taxa and areas, including the notions that the Hawaiian biota is almost entirely derived from ancient (often Mesozoic) central Pacific metapopulations, that the disjunctions of extremely mobile organisms such as ducks rarely, if ever, result from long-distance dispersal, and that primates were widespread 120 million years before their first appearance in the fossil record. In contrast to Heads’ perspective, a central message of The Monkey’s Voyage is that explanations for disjunct distributions should be evaluated on the basis of diverse kinds of evidence, without strong a priori assumptions about the relative likelihoods of long-distance dispersal and vicariance.

scholarly journals Phylogeny and Biogeography of Exacum (Gentianaceae): A Disjunctive Distribution in the Indian Ocean Basin Resulted from Long Distance Dispersal and Extensive Radiation

2005 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-Ming Yuan ◽  
Sébastien Wohlhauser ◽  
Michael Möller ◽  
Jens Klackenberg ◽  
Martin W. Callmander ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
Long Distance Dispersal ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The Indian Ocean

scholarly journals Into-India or out-of-India? Historical biogeography of freshwater gastropod genus Pila (Ampullariidae)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maitreya Sil ◽  
N. A. Aravind ◽  
K. Praveen Karanth
Keyword(s):  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Continental Drift ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Freshwater Snail ◽  
Historical Biogeography ◽  
Molecular Dating ◽  
Tropical Asia ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Ancestral Area Reconstruction ◽  
History Of

AbstractThe biota of the Indian subcontinent has assembled during various points of the history of its continental drift: some when it was still a part of Gondwanaland and subsequently dispersed ‘out-of-India’ and some dispersed ‘into-India’ after it collided with Asia. However, the relative contribution of these connection to the current biotic assembly of the subcontinent is still under-explored. We aimed to understand the relative importance of these various routes of biotic assembly in India through studying the historical biogeography of tropical Old World freshwater snail genus Pila. We reconstructed a near-complete phylogeny of Ampullariidae including all the described Pila species from India and published sequences of Ampullariids from all over the world from two mitochondrial and two nuclear markers. Thereafter molecular dating and ancestral area reconstruction analyses were carried out in order to ascertain the time frame and route of colonization of India. The results suggest that Pila dispersed into India as well as other parts of tropical Asia from Africa after both India and Africa collided with Eurasia. Furthermore, multiple dispersals have taken place between Southeast Asia and India. The findings consolidate the rapidly building evidence that much of the current assemblage of biota actually dispersed into-India after it collided with Asia.

Phylogenetic placement and the timing of diversification in Australia’s endemic Vachellia (Caesalpinioideae, Mimosoid Clade, Fabaceae) species

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
D. F. Comben ◽  
G. A. McCulloch ◽  
G. K. Brown ◽  
G. H. Walter
Keyword(s):  
Biological Control ◽  
Molecular Dating ◽  
Long Distance Dispersal ◽  
Monophyletic Clade ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Australian Species ◽  
Phylogenetic Placement ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Species Being ◽  
Relaxed Molecular Clock

The genus Vachellia Wight & Arn. has a pantropical distribution, with species being distributed through Africa, the Americas, Asia and Australia. The relationships among the lineages from Africa and America are well understood, but the phylogenetic placement and evolutionary origins of the Australian species of Vachellia are not known. We, therefore, sequenced four plastid genes from representatives of each of the nine Australian species of Vachellia, and used Bayesian inference to assess the phylogenetic placement of these lineages, and a relaxed molecular clock to assess the timing of diversification. The Australian species of Vachellia form a well-supported monophyletic clade, with molecular-dating analysis suggesting a single dispersal into Australia 6.5 million years ago (95% range 13.9–2.7 million years ago). Diversification of the Australian clade commenced more recently, c. 3.1 million years ago (95% range 9.2–1.2 million years ago), perhaps driven by the increased aridification of Australia at this time. The closest relatives to the Australian Vachellia were not from the Malesian bioregion, suggesting either a long-distance dispersal from Africa, or two separate migrations through Asia. These results not only improve our understanding of the biogeography of Vachellia species, but also have significant implications for the biological control of invasive Vachellia species in Australia.

Cytotaxonomic observations on Villarsia (Menyanthaceae)

1974 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 513 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Ornduff
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Distribution Pattern ◽  
South African ◽  
Seed Size ◽  
Ploidy Level ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Long Distance Dispersal ◽  
Chromosome Counts ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Australian Species

Chromosome counts for five species of Villarsia indicate that x = 9 for the genus. In Australia one species is diploid, two species are hexaploid, and one species has tetraploid and hexaploid races. The South African V. capensis is tetraploid. Seed size differences in V. reniformis are not correlated with differences in ploidy level. One Australian species and V. capensis are distylous and strongly self-incompatible. Two homostylous species in Australia are self-compatible, but V. albiflora is homostylous and self-incompatible. Villarsia capensis is morphologically variable, but seems closely related to eastern Australian species. The amphi-Indian Ocean distribution pattern exhibited by this genus is an unusual one, and it seems doubtful if it can be accounted for by long-distance dispersal. The present range was perhaps achieved at a time when continental positions and climatic conditions were more favourable for overland migration than they are at present.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document