Biogeography and Evolution of Proceratophrys Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920 (Anura, Odontophrynidae)

Abstract

South America is an excellent setting to test evolutionary hypotheses, given its historical geo-climatic complexity that has shaped its landscape to generate and host extraordinary species diversity. Proceratophrys is a diverse genus of anura widely distributed in different ecoregions such as Amazonia, Caatinga, Cerrado, Chiquitano Forest, Atlantic Forest, and represents a curious group with discrepant morphologies among closely related species. Through phylogenetic, biogeographic approaches and comparative methods we seek to contemplate from morphological aspects used in taxonomy to evolutionary processes associated with diversification (genotypic and phenotypic) and distribution of species throughout South America. In Chapter 1 we reviewed and standardized the definitions of morphological and morphometric characters for all species of Proceratophrys, totaling a commented list of 25 features, with their terminologies, and their respective states (all illustrated), strongly recommended for descriptions and comparisons among species. In this way we intend to establish a reference for future taxonomic work within the genus. In Chapter 2 we estimate a molecular phylogeny dating Proceratophrys species, and based on this we reconstruct biogeographic history and ancestral state evolution for the palpebral appendadge. We recovered the genus as monophyletic, composed of two well-supported main clades, one of them formed exclusively by species from the Caatinga and the other by the remaining species (from the other ecoregions). The common ancestor of the genus has been estimated to the beginning of the Eocene, having appeared in a forested region between the Atlantic Forest and the Caatinga, presenting palpebral appendadge. The processes of diversification and dispersal within the genus were associated with the history of expansion and retraction between open and forested formations caused by climatic oscillations. Finally, in Chapter 3, we performed a phylogeography of P. boiei using multi-loci data to evaluate its structure and diversification, and possible explanatory processes. We recover three lineages with independent evolution, which are phylogenetically cohesive and well supported, with high genetic diversity each, and an ancient diversification processes during the Miocene and Pliocene, and geographically structured along the southern portion of the Atlantic Forest. We show that climatic characteristics, such as temperature and precipitation, and geographic distance have shaped current genetic diversity.