Has living on islands been so simple? Insights from the insular endemic frog Discoglossus montalentii.

ABSTRACT: Island populations have been extensively used as model systems in ecology, biogeography, conservation and evolutionary biology, owing to the several simplifying assumptions that they allow. Nevertheless, recent findings from intra-island phylogeographic studies are casting doubts on the generality of some of these underlying assumptions. We investigated the phylogeography, historical demography, and population genetic structure of the Corsican endemic frog, Discoglossus montalentii. In contrast with expectations based on its insular, restricted and continuous distribution, we found evidence of 3 phylogroups, whose rather ancient divergence (Early-Middle Pleistocene) was likely primed by climatic changes that occurred during the 'middle Pleistocene revolution'. Furthermore, their differenti

SUBMITTER: Bisconti R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3564813 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature