Assembly of the eastern North American herpetofauna: new evidence from lizards and frogs

Darwin first recognized the importance of episodic intercontinental dispersal in the establishment of worldwide biotic diversity. Faunal exchange across the Bering Land Bridge is a major example of such dispersal. Here, we demonstrate with mitochondrial DNA evidence that three independent dispersal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology Letters
Main Authors: Robert Macey, J, Schulte, James A, Strasburg, Jared L, Brisson, Jennifer A, Larson, Allan, Ananjeva, Natalia B, Wang, Yuezhao, Parham, James F, Papenfuss, Theodore J
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: The Royal Society 2006
Subjects:
Research Article
Bering Land Bridge
Beringia
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1686176
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17148411
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0473
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Summary:Darwin first recognized the importance of episodic intercontinental dispersal in the establishment of worldwide biotic diversity. Faunal exchange across the Bering Land Bridge is a major example of such dispersal. Here, we demonstrate with mitochondrial DNA evidence that three independent dispersal events from Asia to North America are the source for almost all lizard taxa found in continental eastern North America. Two other dispersal events across Beringia account for observed diversity among North American ranid frogs, one of the most species-rich groups of frogs in eastern North America. The contribution of faunal elements from Asia via dispersal across Beringia is a dominant theme in the historical assembly of the eastern North American herpetofauna.

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