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Päckert M, Martens J, Hering J, Kvist L, Illera JC.
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Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2013 May;67(2):458-67. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2013.02.010. Epub 2013 Feb 20.
Abstract
Afrocanarian blue tits (Cyanistes teneriffae) have a scattered distribution on the
Canary Islands and on the North African continent. To date, the Canary Islands have
been considered the species’ main Pleistocene evolutionary center, but their
colonization pathways remain uncertain. We set out to reconstruct a dated multi-gene
phylogeny and ancestral ranges for Cyanistes tit species including the currently
unstudied, peripheral Libyan population of C. t. cyrenaicae. In all reconstructions
the most easterly and westerly peripheral populations (in Libya and on La Palma)
represented basal offshoots of C. teneriffae. These two peripheral populations
shared all four major indels and differed in this respect from all other members of
the Afrocanarian core group. The basal split of Afrocanarian blue tits from their
European relatives was dated to the early Pliocene. The two ancestral area
reconstructions were contradictory and suggested either a Canarian or a North
African origin of C. teneriffae – but unambiguously ruled out a continental European
ancestral range. We conclude that the peripheral populations of C. teneriffae
represent relic lineages of a first faunal interchange, presumably downstream
colonization from North Africa to the Canary Islands. Subsequent eastward
stepping-stone colonization within the Canarian Archipelago culminated in a very
recent late (possibly even post-) Pleistocene back-colonization from the Canary
Islands to North Africa.
Keywords: .
Link/DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2013.02.010