Assembly of the eastern North American herpetofauna: New evidence from lizards and frogs

Authors

J. Robert Macy, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of CaliforniaFollow
James A. Schulte II, Clarkson University
Jared L. Strasburg, Indiana University
Jennifer A. Brisson, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Allan Larson, Washington UniversityFollow
Natalia B. Ananjeva, Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg
Yuezhao Wang, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, Sichuan, PRC
James F. Parham, Museum of Paleontology, University of California
Theodore J. Papenfuss, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2006

Comments

Published in Biology Letters 2:3 (September 22, 2006), pp. 388–392; doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0473 PMCID: PMC1686176 Copyright © 2006 The Royal Society. Used by permission.

Abstract

Darwin first recognized the importance of episodic intercontinental dispersal in the establishment of worldwide biotic diversity. Faunal exchange across the Bering Land Bridge is a major example of such dispersal. Here, we demonstrate with mitochondrial DNA evidence that three independent dispersal events from Asia to North America are the source for almost all lizard taxa found in continental eastern North America. Two other dispersal events across Beringia account for observed diversity among North American ranid frogs, one of the most species-rich groups of frogs in eastern North America. The contribution of faunal elements from Asia via dispersal across Beringia is a dominant theme in the historical assembly of the eastern North American herpetofauna.

Includes Supplementary Data tables.