Publication details
Comparative phylogeography of the Somali-Masai savanna in eastern Africa using small rodents as a model
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Somali-Masai savanna is one of the least known African regional centre of endemism and information about genetic structure within species or alternatively, among closely related species is thus almost entirely missing. The lack of empirical data precludes to assess which historical climatic factors and geomorphological barriers have influenced the evolution of savanna biota in this part of Eastern Africa. Relevant information from model species can be useful also for understanding the history of our own species, because many crucial fossil localities in context of human evolution are located in the Somali-Masai region. Small mammals, and especially rodents, are very suitable mo- del for phylogeographic reconstructions, because they are tightly linked to particular habitat type, they have low dispersal ability and high substitution rate of mitochondrial DNA. In the present study we analyzed genetic structure of three African rodent genera (Acomys, Arvicanthis and Gerbilliscus), which are common faunal element in the Somali-Masai savanna. With fully Bayesian framework (MrBayes, BPP, BEAST) we identified new genetic lineages corresponding to putative new species requiring further taxonomic revision. Using combination of detailed distributional data with divergence dating, we propose the scenario of historical changes in the Somali-Masai region identifying the most important barriers of gene flow in (e.g. mountain chains, large rivers or paleo-lakes in the Rift Valley), which have played important role in the evolution of savanna ecosystems in Eastern Africa during Plio-Pleistocene. |