Molecular phylogeny of mega-diverse Carabus attests late Miocene evolution of alpine environments in the Himalayan-Tibetan Orogen.

ABSTRACT: The timing, sequence, and scale of uplift of the Himalayan-Tibetan Orogen (HTO) are controversially debated. Many geoscientific studies assume paleoelevations close to present-day elevations and the existence of alpine environments across the HTO already in the late Paleogene, contradicting fossil data. Using molecular genetic data of ground beetles, we aim to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental history of the HTO, focusing on its southern margin (Himalayas, South Tibet). Based on a comprehensive sampling of extratropical Carabus, and ~ 10,000 bp of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA we applied Bayesian and Maximum likelihood methods to infer the phylogenetic relationships. We show that Carabus arrived in the HTO at the Oligocene-Miocene boundary. During the early Miocene, five lineages diversif

SUBMITTER: Schmidt J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10427656 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature