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East Asian allopatry and north Eurasian sympatry in Long‐tailed Tit lineages despite similar population dynamics during the late Pleistocene
Author(s) -
Song Gang,
Zhang Ruiying,
DuBay Shane G.,
Qu Yanhua,
Dong Lu,
Wang Wenjuan,
Zhang Yanyun,
Lambert David M.,
Lei Fumin
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
zoologica scripta
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.204
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1463-6409
pISSN - 0300-3256
DOI - 10.1111/zsc.12148
Subject(s) - pleistocene , allopatric speciation , biology , phylogeography , sympatry , lineage (genetic) , last glacial maximum , glacial period , population , ecology , evolutionary biology , paleontology , phylogenetics , sympatric speciation , demography , biochemistry , sociology , gene
Eurasia is a large continent characterized by heterogeneous environments. Glacial cycles during the late Pleistocene have had variable impacts on the avifauna across Eurasia. Bird populations from South‐East Asia show stability through the Last Glacial Maximum ( LGM ), while populations from Europe exhibit evidence of post‐ LGM expansion. We investigated the phylogeography of the Long‐tailed Tit ( Aegithalos caudatus ), which spans the longitudinal breadth of Eurasia to test how climatic history and regional topographical complexity affected populations and diversification within the species complex. Our results show that two lineages from central and southern China (lineages C and D) segregate geographically, while lineages across northern Eurasia (lineage A and B) show substantial sympatry. Bayesian estimates for the timing of diversification suggest that the four lineages diverged during the middle Pleistocene, splitting in parallel and undergoing concurrent demographic histories since divergence. A. caudatus lineages experienced similar and synchronous population size dynamics during glacial cycles before the LGM . We conclude that the difference in geo‐topologic complexity may be an important factor that led to the variation in secondary admixture between northern Eurasian and eastern Asian lineages.