Abstract
Five-toed jerboas of the subfamily Allactaginae comprise several complex taxa occurring over a wide distribution range covering a large part of the Eurasian arid belt. In this study, we employed current methods of molecular phylogenetics based on 15 nuclear genes and the mitochondrial gene cytb to revise relations and systematics within Allactaginae. We also applied species distribution modelling projected on paleo-environmental data to reconstruct the geographic patterns of speciation in Allactaginae. We elucidated the intergeneric relationships within this subfamily and clarified interspecies relations within the genus Scarturus. Moreover, our results demonstrate the species status of S. caprimulga; outline the currently understudied diversity within Orientallactaga, Allactaga, and Pygeretmus; and improve the divergence estimates of these taxa. Based on our results from modelling of geographic range fragmentation in allactagines, we suggest the dating and location of speciation events and present hypotheses regarding general habitat niche conservatism in small mammals.
Highlights
Five-toed jerboas (Allactaginae Vinogradov, 1925) are typical elements of the Eurasian arid zone
Tree topologies derived from Maximum Likelihood (ML), Maximum Parsimony (MP), and Bayesian analyses were consistent at all interspecific nodes
The S. euphraticus species group occurred as a sister group to the other lineages, whereas S. vinogradovi appeared to form a clade with Scarturus sp
Summary
Five-toed jerboas (Allactaginae Vinogradov, 1925) are typical elements of the Eurasian arid zone. The biogeographic history of jerboa taxa was analysed previously[4] using an event-based method employing a dispersal-extinction-cladogenesis model[5] This and similar methods (e.g. dispersal–vicariance a nalysis6) have significant shortcomings: they use arbitrarily predefined areas, and the numbers of such areas allowed by different software programs are typically low due to computational c onstraints[6,7,8]. Peterson et al.[15] hypothesised that ecological niches evolve only little at or around the time of speciation events whereas niche differences accumulate later; this hypothesis was supported by analysis of habitat niche evolution of arvicoline rodents[16] It seems that, after emergence of the main ecophysiological and morphological adaptations in allactagines, foraging niches within the group evolved (and diverged) substantially whereas habitat niches evolved relatively slow, mainly in terms of local adaptations. We obtained models for current descendants of a putative ancestral form and projected them to paleo-environment
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