Historical biogeography of aplocheiloid killifishes (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes)

Abstract

Aplocheiloid killifishes, a diversified group of primary freshwater fishes occurring in tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa and south-eastern Asia, have been the focus of debates among biogeographers using dispersal and vicariance approaches. The aim of the present paper is to infer biogeographical events responsible for the present distribution of aplocheiloid killifishes using an event-based methodology (DIVA) in conjunction to a phylogeny combining mitochondrial DNA sequences and morphology. Optimal ancestral reconstructions support vicariance events chronologically congruent to northern Gondwana break-up, including separation of Madagascar, India, South America and Africa plates (about 121 – 84 Ma), as well as congruent to paleogeographical events within the Africa plate, such as the widening of the Benue Trough (about 90 – 80 Ma) and the start of activity of the East African Rift System (about 30 Ma), and within the South American plate, as the formation of Gaarland (about 35 – 33 Ma), uplift of the Andean Eastern Cordillera (11.8 Ma) and the interruption of the paleo-Amazonas river basin by the uplift of the Vaupés Swell (about 11 – 7 Ma). The reconstructions also support geodispersal events related to the colonization of the Greater Antilles (about 35 – 33 Ma) and Central America areas (3.7 – 3.4 Ma) by aplocheiloids through land connections, besides some dispersal events through the Zaire, East Africa, Amazon and Eastern Brazil areas.