Island Ancestors and New World Biogeography: A Case Study from the Scorpions (Buthidae: Centruroidinae).

ABSTRACT: Scorpions are an excellent system for understanding biogeographical patterns. Most major scorpion lineages predate modern landforms, making them suitable for testing hypotheses of vicariance and dispersal. The Caribbean islands are endowed with a rich and largely endemic scorpion fauna, the origins of which have not been previously investigated with modern biogeographical methods. Three sets of hypotheses have been proposed to explain present patterns of diversity in the Caribbean: (1) connections via land bridges, (2) vicariance events, and (3) overwater dispersal from continents and among islands. The present study investigates the biogeographical diversification of the New World buthid scorpion subfamily Centruroidinae Kraus, 1955, a clade of seven genera and more than 110 species; infe

SUBMITTER: Esposito LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6401060 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature