Sympatric lineages in the Mantidactylus ambreensis complex of Malagasy frogs originated allopatrically rather than by in-situ speciation

Rasolonjatovo, Safidy M.; Scherz, Mark D.; Hutter, Carl R.; Glaw, Frank; Rakotoarison, Andolalao; Razafindraibe, Jary H.; Raselimanana, Achille P.; Vences, Miguel

doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2019.106700

Cited by 12 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Montagne d’Ambre is also recognized for its steep environmental gradient, with moist evergreen forest at high elevations surrounded by drier lowland habitats (Goodman, Andrianarimisa, Olson, & Soarimalala, 1996; Goodman & Raherilalao, 2014). Thus, species divergence in this region is likely complex, with recurrent allopatric separation as well as adaptive divergence along ecotones (Rasolonjatovo et al., 2020). Our results lend new support to the existing idea that Montagne d’Ambre harbours unique biodiversity and microendemic species, and should continue to be a priority for conservation efforts and future research on speciation (Louis et al., 2008; Raxworthy & Nussbaum, 1994).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Montane regions shape patterns of diversification in small mammals and reptiles from Madagascar’s moist evergreen forest

Everson

Jansa

Olson

2020

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim: Madagascar is renowned for its exceptional species diversity and endemism. The island's mountainous regions are thought to have played a role in lineage and species diversification, but this has yet to be explored across taxonomic groups and a temporal context has not yet been identified. We tested whether montane regions have promoted population divergence in Madagascar's vertebrate fauna and, if so, whether these divergence events were contemporaneous.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Montane regions shape patterns of diversification in small mammals and reptiles from Madagascar’s moist evergreen forest

Everson

Jansa

Olson

2020

Journal of Biogeography

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“…For molecular analysis, we used sequences of fragments of the mitochondrial genes for 16S rRNA (16S) and Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit 1 (cox1) from Rasolonjatovo et al 19 . From the comprehensive dataset published by these authors, we selected a representative set of sequences from the high elevation (HE) and low elevation (LE) lineages of M. ambreensis, and a sequence of the sympatric undescribed species of the subgenus Ochthomantis, M. sp.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We aligned the holotype consensus sequences of 16S and cox1 to sequences from Rasolonjatovo et al 19 in MEGA v7.0 33 (we did not further analyse the cytochrome b consensus sequence as it contained many missing data, and because reference sequences of the M. ambreensis HE lineage were not available for this gene). To infer phylogenetic trees, we first selected the substitution model for both genes separately under the Akaike Information Criterion in MEGA v7.0.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Until recently, it was thought that the name was rather unambiguously assigned, as the species is characterised by a stark border between a brown dorsum and a white to yellow band along the flank [15][16][17] , a feature lacking in the other currently described Ochthomantis species 18 . However, we recently discovered that there are two major genetic lineages that have such a colour border on Montagne d' Ambre, one of which occurs at higher elevation and appears to be microendemic to the mountain, while the other occurs more widely across northern Madagascar at lower elevation 19 . These two species-level lineages are highly distinct in mitochondrial DNA and in all but one studied individual differ by at least one substitution in the nuclear RAG1 gene 19 .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…However, we recently discovered that there are two major genetic lineages that have such a colour border on Montagne d' Ambre, one of which occurs at higher elevation and appears to be microendemic to the mountain, while the other occurs more widely across northern Madagascar at lower elevation 19 . These two species-level lineages are highly distinct in mitochondrial DNA and in all but one studied individual differ by at least one substitution in the nuclear RAG1 gene 19 . The assignment of the name being unclear, it is impossible to know which of these lineages represents the true M. ambreensis, and which is an unnamed species.…”

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‘Barcode fishing’ for archival DNA from historical type material overcomes taxonomic hurdles, enabling the description of a new frog species

Scherz

Rasolonjatovo

Köhler

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Taxonomic progress is often hindered by intrinsic factors, such as morphologically cryptic species that require a broad suite of methods to distinguish, and extrinsic factors, such as uncertainties in the allocation of scientific names to species. These uncertainties can be due to a wide variety of factors, including old and poorly preserved type specimens (which contain only heavily degraded DNA or have lost important diagnostic characters), inappropriately chosen type specimens (e.g. juveniles without diagnostic characters) or poorly documented type specimens (with unprecise, incorrect, or missing locality data). Thanks to modern sequencing technologies it is now possible to overcome many such extrinsic factors by sequencing DNA from name-bearing type specimens of uncertain assignment and assigning these to known genetic lineages. Here, we apply this approach to frogs of the Mantidactylus ambreensis complex, which was recently shown to consist of two genetic lineages supported by concordant differentiation in mitochondrial and nuclear genes. These lineages co-occur on the Montagne dʼAmbre Massif in northern Madagascar but appear to have diverged in allopatry. We use a recently published bait set based on three mitochondrial markers from all known Malagasy frog lineages to capture DNA sequences from the 127-year-old holotype of Mantidactylus ambreensis Mocquard, 1895. With the obtained sequences we are able to assign the name M. ambreensis to the lowland lineage, which is rather widespread in the rainforests of northern Madagascar, leaving the microendemic high-elevation lineage on Montagne d’Ambre in north Madagascar in need of description. We describe this species as Mantidactylus ambony sp. nov., differing from M. ambreensis in call parameters and a smaller body size. Thus, using target enrichment to obtain DNA sequence data from this old specimen, we were able to resolve the extrinsic (nomenclatural) hindrances to taxonomic resolution of this complex. We discuss the broad-scale versatility of this ‘barcode fishing’ approach, which can draw on the enormous success of global DNA barcoding initiatives to quickly and efficiently assign type specimens to lineages.

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Repeated divergence of amphibians and reptiles across an elevational gradient in northern Madagascar

Scherz

Schmidt

Brown

et al. 2023

Ecology and Evolution

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How environmental factors shape patterns of biotic diversity in tropical ecosystems is an active field of research, but studies examining the possibility of ecological speciation in terrestrial tropical ecosystems are scarce. We use the isolated rainforest herpetofauna on the Montagne d'Ambre (Amber Mountain) massif in northern Madagascar as a model to explore elevational divergence at the level of populations and communities. Based on intensive sampling and DNA barcoding of amphibians and reptiles along a transect ranging from ca. 470-1470 m above sea level (a.s.l.), we assessed a main peak in species richness at an elevation of ca. 1000 m a.s.l. with 41 species. The proportion of local endemics was highest (about 1/3

show abstract

Sympatric lineages in the Mantidactylus ambreensis complex of Malagasy frogs originated allopatrically rather than by in-situ speciation

Cited by 12 publications

References 49 publications

Montane regions shape patterns of diversification in small mammals and reptiles from Madagascar’s moist evergreen forest

Montane regions shape patterns of diversification in small mammals and reptiles from Madagascar’s moist evergreen forest

‘Barcode fishing’ for archival DNA from historical type material overcomes taxonomic hurdles, enabling the description of a new frog species

Repeated divergence of amphibians and reptiles across an elevational gradient in northern Madagascar

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