Phylogeny, biogeography and diversification patterns of side-necked turtles (Testudines: Pleurodira).

ABSTRACT: Pleurodires or side-necked turtles are today restricted to freshwater environments of South America, Africa-Madagascar and Australia, but in the past they were distributed much more broadly, being found also on Eurasia, India and North America, and marine environments. Two hypotheses were proposed to explain this distribution; in the first, vicariance would have shaped the current geographical distribution and, in the second, extinctions constrained a previously widespread distribution. Here, we aim to reconstruct pleurodiran biogeographic history and diversification patterns based on a new phylogenetic hypothesis recovered from the analysis of the largest morphological dataset yet compiled for the lineage, testing which biogeographical process prevailed during its evolutionary history. Th

SUBMITTER: Ferreira GS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5882704 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature