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Where and when does a ring start and end? Testing the ring-species hypothesis in a species complex of Australian parrots
journal contribution
posted on 2008-11-07, 00:00 authored by L Joseph, G Dolman, S Donnellan, K Saint, Mathew BergMathew Berg, Andy BennettSpeciation, despite ongoing gene flow can be studied directly in nature in ring species that comprise two reproductively isolated populations connected by a chain or ring of intergrading populations. We applied three tiers of spatio-temporal analysis (phylogeny/historical biogeography, phylogeography and landscape/population genetics) to the data from mitochondrial and nuclear genomes of eastern Australian parrots of the Crimson Rosella Platycercus elegans complex to understand the history and present genetic structure of the ring they have long been considered to form. A ring speciation hypothesis does not explain the patterns we have observed in our data (e.g. multiple genetic discontinuities, discordance in genotypic and phenotypic assignments where terminal differentiates meet). However, we cannot reject that a continuous circular distribution has been involved in the group's history or indeed that one was formed through secondary contact at the 'ring's' east and west; however, we reject a simple ring-species hypothesis as traditionally applied, with secondary contact only at its east. We discuss alternative models involving historical allopatry of populations. We suggest that population expansion shown by population genetics parameters in one of these isolates was accompanied by geographical range expansion, secondary contact and hybridization on the eastern and western sides of the ring. Pleistocene landscape and sea-level and habitat changes then established the birds' current distributions and range disjunctions. Populations now show idiosyncratic patterns of selection and drift. We suggest that selection and drift now drive evolution in different populations within what has been considered the ring.
History
Journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society B-biological sciencesVolume
275Issue
1650Pagination
2431 - 2440Publisher
The Royal SocietyLocation
London, EnglandPublisher DOI
ISSN
0962-8452eISSN
1471-2954Language
engPublication classification
C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2008, The Royal SocietyUsage metrics
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No categories selectedKeywords
ring specieslandscape geneticsphylogeographyspeciationPlatycercus elegansCrimson RosellaScience & TechnologyLife Sciences & BiomedicineBiologyEcologyEvolutionary BiologyLife Sciences & Biomedicine - Other TopicsEnvironmental Sciences & EcologyMAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD-ESTIMATIONGENE FLOWENSATINA-ESCHSCHOLTZIILAKE BUNGUNNIAEVOLUTIONARYSYSTEMATICSCOALESCENTSALAMANDERS
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