Biogeography of worm lizards (Amphisbaenia) driven by end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

ABSTRACT: Worm lizards (Amphisbaenia) are burrowing squamates that live as subterranean predators. Their underground existence should limit dispersal, yet they are widespread throughout the Americas, Europe and Africa. This pattern was traditionally explained by continental drift, but molecular clocks suggest a Cenozoic diversification, long after the break-up of Pangaea, implying dispersal. Here, we describe primitive amphisbaenians from the North American Palaeocene, including the oldest known amphisbaenian, and provide new and older molecular divergence estimates for the clade, showing that worm lizards originated in North America, then radiated and dispersed in the Palaeogene following the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K-Pg) extinction. This scenario implies at least three trans-oceanic dispersals: fro

SUBMITTER: Longrich NR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4426617 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature