Meeting Abstract
11.4 Sunday, Jan. 4 Exploring the Faunal Connection between the Ozark Plateau and the Appalachian Mountains: A Phylogeographic Study of the Long-tailed Salamanders of the Eurycea longicauda complex TIMPE, E.K.*; KOZAK, K.H.; BONETT, R.M.; Univ. of Tulsa; Univ. of Minnesota; Univ. of Tulsa elizabeth-timpe@utulsa.edu
The Ozark Plateau is a major geographic feature in eastern North America that harbors a wide diversity of endemic plants and animals. The colonization of this region is believed to have occurred from numerous independent invasions from adjacent areas, including the Appalachian Mountains and the Coastal Plain. Although in recent years there have been several detailed phylogeographic studies of eastern North American, few examine species groups that are distributed across the Ozarks and surrounding areas in order to test the origin and dispersal of fauna of this region. Long-tailed salamanders are relatively abundant and widely distributed throughout eastern North America, providing an ideal model system to investigate the faunal connections between these regions. Using a phylogeny based on mitochondrial (cyt b, ND2, 16S) and nuclear (Rag1) DNA sequences, we test the patterns and timing of dispersal of the Eurycea longicauda complex, to make inferences about the historical biogeography of the Ozark Plateau and the Appalachian Mountains. All phylogenetic analyses recover four major well-supported lineages, that represent each of the nominate taxa of long-tailed salamanders (E. l. longicauda, E. l. melanopleura, E. guttolineata, and E. lucifuga). Ozark long-tailed salamanders (E. l. melanopleura and some populations of E. lucifuga) are phylogenetically nested among Appalachian lineages indicating multiple colonization events from the Appalachian Highlands onto the Ozark Plateau. Divergence time estimates indicate that the E. l. melanopleura lineage has been in the Ozarks since the Miocene, whereas, Ozark populations of E. lucifuga appear to be the result of recent Pleistocene colonization.
