Multilocus species tree analyses resolve the radiation of the widespread Bufo bufo species group (Anura, Bufonidae).

New analytical methods are improving our ability to reconstruct robust species trees from multilocus datasets, despite difficulties in phylogenetic reconstruction associated with recent, rapid divergence, incomplete lineage sorting and/or introgression. In this study, we applied these methods to resolve the radiation of toads in the Bufo bufo (Anura, Bufonidae) species group, ranging from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to Siberia, based on sequences from two mitochondrial and four nuclear DNA regions (3490 base pairs). We obtained a fully-resolved topology, with the recently described Bufo eichwaldi from the Talysh Mountains in south Azerbaijan and Iran as the sister taxon to a clade including: (1) north African, Iberian, and most French populations, referred herein to Bufo spinosus based on the implied inclusion of populations from its type locality and (2) a second clade, sister to B. spinosus, including two sister subclades: one with all samples of Bufo verrucosissimus from the Caucasus and another one with samples of B. bufo from northern France to Russia, including the Apennine and Balkan peninsulas and most of Anatolia. Coalescent-based estimations of time to most recent common ancestors for each species and selected subclades allowed historical reconstruction of the diversification of the species group in the context of Mediterranean paleogeography and indicated a long evolutionary history in this region. Finally, we used our data to delimit the ranges of the four species, particularly the more widespread and historically confused B. spinosus and B. bufo, and identify potential contact zones, some of which show striking parallels with other co-distributed species.

Cryptic crested newt diversity at the Eurasian transition: the mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of Near Eastern Triturus newts.

Crested newts of the Triturus karelinii group occur in a phylogeographically understudied region: the Near East. Controversy surrounds the systematic position of these newts within the complete crested newt assemblage (the Triturus cristatus superspecies). We explore the situation using mitochondrial sequence data (ND2 and ND4, approximately 1.7kb) and employing different methods of phylogenetic inference (Bayesian inference and Maximum Likelihood using mixed models) and molecular dating (r8s and BEAST). The T. karelinii group is monophyletic and constitutes one of four main lineages in the T. cristatus superspecies. The separation of the T. karelinii group from the remaining crested newts around 9Ma is related to the formation of the Mid-Aegean Trench, which separated the Balkan and Anatolian landmasses. The T. karelinii group comprises three geographically structured clades (eastern, central and western). The genetic divergence shown by these clades is comparable to that among recognized crested newt species. We suggest the uplift of the Armenian Plateau to be responsible for the separation of the eastern clade around 7Ma, and the re-establishment of a marine connection between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean at the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis to have caused the split between the central and western clade around 5.5Ma. Genetic structuring within the three clades dates to the Quaternary Ice Age (<2.59Ma) and is associated with alternating periods of isolation and reconnection caused by periodic changes in sea level and surface runoff.

Phylogeography of two European newt species--discordance between mtDNA and morphology.

The newts Triturus vulgaris and Triturus montandoni are sister species that exhibit contrasting levels of intraspecific morphological variation. Triturus vulgaris has a broad Eurasiatic distribution encompassing both formerly glaciated and unglaciated areas and shows substantial morphological differentiation in the southern part of its range, while T. montandoni, confined to the Carpathians, is morphologically uniform. We analysed sequence variation of two mtDNA fragments of the total length of c. 1850 bp in 285 individuals of both species collected from 103 localities. Phylogenetic analysis of 200 unique haplotypes defined 12 major clades, their age estimated at c. 4.5-1.0 million years (Myr). Most of the older clades were found in the southern part of the range, and also in central Europe, mainly in Romania. The distribution of mtDNA clades points to the existence of several glacial refugia, located in the Caucasus region, Anatolia, the Balkan Peninsula, Italy, and more to the north in central Europe. The concordance between mtDNA based phylogeny and the distribution of T. vulgaris subspecies was weak. Triturus montandoni haplotypes did not form a monophyletic group. Instead they were found in six clades, in five of them mixed with T. vulgaris haplotypes, most likely as a result of past or ongoing hybridization and multiple introgression of mtDNA from T. vulgaris to T. montandoni. Patterns of sequence variation within clades suggested long-term demographic stability in the southern groups, moderate and relatively old demographic growth in the populations inhabiting central Europe, and high growth in some of the groups that colonized northern parts of Europe after the last glacial maximum.