Publication Date:
2024-03-21
Description:
Palearctic water frogs (genus Pelophylax) are an outstanding model in ecology and
evolution, being widespread, speciose, either threatened or threatening to other species
through biological invasions, and capable of siring hybrid offspring that escape the
rules of sexual reproduction. Despite half a century of genetic research and hundreds
of publications, the diversity, systematics and biogeography of Pelophylax still remain
highly confusing, in no small part due to a lack of correspondence between studies.
To provide a comprehensive overview, we gathered 〉13,000 sequences of barcoding
genes from 〉1700 native and introduced localities and built multigene mitochondrial
(~17 kb) and nuclear (~10 kb) phylogenies. We mapped all currently recognized taxa
and their phylogeographic lineages (〉40) to get a grasp on taxonomic issues, cyto-nuclear
discordances, the genetic makeup of hybridogenetic hybrids, and the origins
of introduced populations. Competing hypotheses for the molecular calibration were
evaluated through plausibility tests, implementing a new approach relying on predictions
from the anuran speciation continuum. Based on our timetree, we propose a new biogeographic paradigm for the Palearctic since the Paleogene, notably by attributing
a prominent role to the dynamics of the Paratethys, a vast paleo-sea
that
extended over most of Europe. Furthermore, our results show that distinct marsh frog
lineages from Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Near East, and Central Asia (P. ridibundus
ssp.) are naturally capable of inducing hybridogenesis with pool frogs (P. lessonae).
We identified 14 alien lineages (mostly of P. ridibundus) over ~20 areas of invasions,
especially in Western Europe, with genetic signatures disproportionally pointing to
the Balkans and Anatolia as the regions of origins, in line with exporting records of
the frog leg industry and the stocks of pet sellers. Pelophylax thus emerges as one
of the most invasive amphibians worldwide, and deserves much higher conservation
concern than currently given by the authorities fighting biological invasions.
Repository Name:
National Museum of Natural History, Netherlands
Type:
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Format:
application/pdf
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