Insights into the evolutionary dynamics of Neotropical biomes from the phylogeography and paleodistribution modeling of Bromelia balansae.

Premise Of The Study: Historical abiotic and biotic factors have strongly affected species diversification and speciation. Although pre-Pleistocene events have been linked to the divergence of several Neotropical organisms, studies have highlighted a more prominent role of Pleistocene climatic oscillations in shaping current patterns of genetic variation of plants.

Methods: We performed phylogeographic analyses based on plastidial markers and modeled the current distribution and paleodistribution of Bromelia balansae (Bromeliaceae), an herbaceous species with a wide geographical distribution in South America, to infer the processes underlying its evolutionary history.

Comparative cytogenetic analysis of some species of the Dendropsophus microcephalus group (Anura, Hylidae) in the light of phylogenetic inferences.

Background: Dendropsophus is a monophyletic anuran genus with a diploid number of 30 chromosomes as an important synapomorphy. However, the internal phylogenetic relationships of this genus are poorly understood. Interestingly, an intriguing interspecific variation in the telocentric chromosome number has been useful in species identification.