Journal article
The evolution of sexual and parthenogenetic Warramaba: a window onto Plio-Pleistocene diversification processes in an arid biome
Michael Kearney, Mark J Blacket
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY | WILEY | Published : 2008
Abstract
Environmental changes over the Plio-Pleistocene have been key drivers of speciation patterns and genetic diversification in high-latitude and mesic environments, yet comparatively little is known about the evolutionary history of species in arid environments. We applied phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses to understand the evolutionary history of Warramaba grasshoppers from the Australian arid zone, a group including sexual and parthenogenetic lineages. Sequence data (mitochondrial COI) showed that the four major sexual lineages within Warramaba most likely diverged in the Pliocene, around 2-7 million years ago. All sexual lineages exhibited considerable phylogenetic structure. Detaile..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Ary Hoffmann, Craig Moritz, Jared Strasburg, Nelida Contreras, Graeme Webb, Steve Cooper, Steve Donnellan, Taki Kawakami and Paul Sunnucks for encouragement, advice and support. Thanks also to Mark Cowan and Karl Brennan for logistical assistance in Kalgoorlie, and to Gareth Holmes and Rob Good for suggestions regarding phylogenetic analyses. Western Australian specimens were collected under research permit no. SF004376. This project was funded by the Australian Research Council.