Phylogeography and population history of the crab‐eating fox (Cerdocyon thous)

Abstract

The crab-eating fox is a medium-sized Neotropical canid with generalist habits and a broad distribution in South America. We have investigated its genetic diversity, population structure and demographic history across most of its geographic range by analysing 512 base pairs (bp) of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region, 615 bp of the mtDNA cytochrome b gene and 1573 total nucleotides from three different nuclear fragments. MtDNA data revealed a strong phylogeographic partition between northeastern Brazil and other portions of the species' distribution, with complete separation between southern and northern components of the Atlantic Forest. We estimated that the two groups diverged from each other c. 400,000-600,000 years ago, and have had contrasting population histories. A recent demographic expansion was inferred for the southern group, while northern populations seem to have had a longer history of large population size. Nuclear sequence data did not support this north-south pattern of subdivision, likely due at least in part to secondary male-mediated historical gene flow, inferred from multilocus coalescent-based analyses. We have compared the inferred phylogeographic patterns to those observed for other Neotropical vertebrates, and report evidence for a major north-south demographic discontinuity that seems to have marked the history of the Atlantic Forest biota.

Range-wide patterns of nuclear and chloroplast DNA diversity in Vriesea gigantea (Bromeliaceae), a neotropical forest species

“…The location of the north-south split in V. gigantea (Figure 1) does not coincide precisely with the latitudinal phylogeographic breaks reported by other phylogeographic studies of Atlantic Forest species (Costa, 2003;Lorenz-Lemke et al, 2005;Grazziotin et al, 2006;Cabanne et al, 2007Cabanne et al, , 2008Tchaicka et al, 2007). This may be explained by the simple fact that barriers to dispersal will affect different species of animals and plants in different ways.…”

“…The phylogeographic patterns reported for these taxa are in agreement with those observed for V. gigantea. For B. jararaca, C. thous and P. elegans, recent Genetic structure in a rainforest bromeliad C Palma-Silva et al demographic expansion was inferred for the southern groups, whereas northern populations seem to have enjoyed past demographic stability (Lorenz-Lemke et al, 2005;Grazziotin et al, 2006;Tchaicka et al, 2007). In our study the significant isolation by distance seen for nuclear microsatellites (Figure 2) and decreasing diversity from the north to south across the species' range (Supplementary Figure 1) are consistent with a biogeographic scenario in which the southern part of the Atlantic Rainforest was formed through migration of northern tropical elements from the Rio de Janeiro region (Rambo, 1951(Rambo, , 1960Smith, 1962).…”

“…Studies addressing the evolutionary history of the species-rich Southern part of the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest taxa from a molecular phylogeographic perspective are extremely rare and include few studies of animals (Grazziotin et al, 2006;Cabanne et al, 2007Cabanne et al, , 2008Tchaicka et al, 2007) and plants (for example, Lorenz-Lemke et al, 2005;Ledru et al, 2007). These studies provide first insights into the effects of historical forest expansions and contractions on present-day patterns of intraspecific variation, suggesting demographic responses to Pleistocene climate-induced changes in forest cover with a conspicuous north-south phylogeographic split for several taxa.…”

Genetic diversity of the Neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis Olfers, 1818) in Southern and Southeastern Brazil

“…The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region has been extensively used in conservation studies of many species of vertebrates (Eizirik et al, 1998;Möller et al, 2001;Montoya-Burgos, 2003;Cantanhede et al, 2005;Márquez et al, 2006;Barnett et al, 2006;Tchaicka et al, 2007). Due to the high polymorphism on its 5' end in vertebrates (Avise, 1994;Taberlet, 1996), this segment has been widely used in populational studies of mustelids such as Gulo gulo (Wilson et al, 2000;Chappell et al, 2004), Mustela putorius (Davison et al, 2000), Martes foina (Davison et al, 2001), Enhydra lutris (Larson et al, 2002), and Lutra lutra (Mucci et al, 1999;Cassens et al, 2000;Pérez-Haro et al, 2005).…”

Femoral artery in a Crab-eating fox: case report

“…It is widely found in forests and fiels of South America including Colombia, Venezuela, Guiana, Suriname, east of Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, north of Argentina and spread in Brazil (NOWAK, 1991;TCHAICKA, EIZIRIK, DE OLIVEIRA et al, 2007). This species has preference to nocturnal habits.…”