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Synthesis of geological and comparative phylogeographic data point to climate, not mountain uplift, as driver of divergence across the Eastern Andean Cordillera

View ORCID ProfileErika Rodríguez-Muñoz, View ORCID ProfileCamilo Montes, View ORCID ProfileAndrew J. Crawford
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.14.906982
Erika Rodríguez-Muñoz
1Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, 111711, Colombia
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  • For correspondence: e.rodriguez1548@uniandes.edu.co
Camilo Montes
2Department of Physics and Geosciences, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia
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Andrew J. Crawford
1Department of Biological Sciences, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, 111711, Colombia
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Abstract

Aim To evaluate the potential role of the orogeny of the Eastern Cordillera (EC) of the Colombian Andes and the Mérida Andes (MA) of Venezuela as drivers of vicariance between populations of 37 tetrapod lineages co-distributed on both flanks, through geological reconstruction and comparative phylogeographic analyses.

Location Northwestern South America

Methods We first reviewed and synthesized published geological data on the timing of uplift for the EC-MA. We then combined newly generated mitochondrial DNA sequence data with published datasets to create a comparative phylogeographic dataset for 37 independent tetrapod lineages. We reconstructed time-calibrated molecular phylogenies for each lineage under Bayesian inference to estimate divergence times between lineages located East and West of the Andes. We performed a comparative phylogeographic analysis of all lineages within each class of tetrapod using hierarchical approximate Bayesian computation (hABC) to test for synchronous vicariance across the EC-MA. To evaluate the potential role of life history in explaining variation in divergence times among lineages, we evaluated 13 general linear models (GLM) containing up to six variables each (maximum elevation, range size, body length, thermoregulation, type of dispersal, and taxonomic class).

Results Our synthesis of geological evidence suggested that the EC-MA reached significant heights by 38–33 million years ago (Ma) along most of its length, and we reject the oft-cited date of 2–5 Ma. Based on mtDNA divergence from 37 lineages, however, the median estimated divergence time across the EC-MA was 3.26 Ma (SE = 2.84) in amphibians, 2.58 Ma (SE = 1.81) in birds, 2.99 Ma (SE = 4.68) in reptiles and 1.43 Ma (SE = 1.23) in mammals. Using Bayes Factors, the hypothesis for a single temporal divergence interval containing synchronous divergence events was supported for mammals and but not supported for amphibians, non-avian reptiles, or birds. Among the six life-history variables tested, only thermoregulation successfully explained variation in divergence times (minimum AICc, R2 0.10), with homeotherms showing more recent divergence relative to poikilotherms.

Main conclusions Our results reject the hypothesis of the rise Andean Cordillera as driver of vicariance of lowland population because divergence dates are too recent and too asynchronous. We discuss alternative explanations, including dispersal through mountain passes, and suggest that changes in the climatic conditions during the Pliocene and Pleistocene interacted with tetrapod physiology, promoting older divergences in amphibians and reptiles relative to mammals and birds on an already established orogen.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 15, 2020.
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Synthesis of geological and comparative phylogeographic data point to climate, not mountain uplift, as driver of divergence across the Eastern Andean Cordillera
Erika Rodríguez-Muñoz, Camilo Montes, Andrew J. Crawford
bioRxiv 2020.01.14.906982; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.14.906982
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Synthesis of geological and comparative phylogeographic data point to climate, not mountain uplift, as driver of divergence across the Eastern Andean Cordillera
Erika Rodríguez-Muñoz, Camilo Montes, Andrew J. Crawford
bioRxiv 2020.01.14.906982; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.14.906982

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