Mosaic patterns of diversification dynamics following the colonization of Melanesian islands.

ABSTRACT: The fate of newly settled dispersers on freshly colonized oceanic islands is a central theme of island biogeography. The emergence of increasingly sophisticated methods of macroevolutionary pattern inference paves the way for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms governing these diversification patterns on lineages following their colonization of oceanic islands. Here we infer a comprehensive molecular phylogeny for Melanesian Exocelina diving beetles. Recent methods in historical biogeography and diversification rate inference were then used to investigate the evolution of these insects in space and time. An Australian origin in the mid-Miocene was followed by independent colonization events towards New Guinea and New Caledonia in the late Miocene. One colonization of New Guinea led to

SUBMITTER: Toussaint EF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4630634 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature