Molecular phylogenetics reveal multiple tertiary vicariance origins of the African rain forest trees.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Tropical rain forests are the most diverse terrestrial ecosystems on the planet. How this diversity evolved remains largely unexplained. In Africa, rain forests are situated in two geographically isolated regions: the West-Central Guineo-Congolian region and the coastal and montane regions of East Africa. These regions have strong floristic affinities with each other, suggesting a former connection via an Eocene pan-African rain forest. High levels of endemism observed in both regions have been hypothesized to be the result of either 1) a single break-up followed by a long isolation or 2) multiple fragmentation and reconnection since the Oligocene. To test these hypotheses the evolutionary history of endemic taxa within a rain forest restricted African lineage of the pla

SUBMITTER: Couvreur TL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2628871 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature