Mountaintops phylogeography: A case study using small mammals from the Andes and the coast of central Chile.

ABSTRACT: We evaluated if two sigmodontine rodent taxa (Abrothrix olivacea and Phyllotis darwini) from the Andes and Coastal mountaintops of central Chile, experienced distributional shifts due to altitudinal movements of habitat and climate change during and after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). We tested the hypothesis that during LGM populations of both species experienced altitudinal shifts from the Andes to the lowlands and the coastal Cordillera, and then range retractions during interglacial towards higher elevations in the Andes. These distributional shifts may have left remnants populations on the mountaintops. We evaluated the occurrence of intraspecific lineages for each species, to construct distribution models at LGM and at present, as extreme climatic conditions for each lineage. Diffe

SUBMITTER: Palma RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5495339 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature