Molecular evidence for cryptic candidate species in Iberian Pelodytes (Anura, Pelodytidae)

Jesús Díaz-Rodríguez, Helena Gonçalves, Fernando Sequeira, Tiago Sousa-Neves, Miguel Tejedo, Nuno Ferrand, Iñigo Martínez-Solano. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Available online 22 December 2014. Species-tree analyses recovered one of these species lineages, corresponding to P. ibericus (lineage B), as the sister taxon to the other three major species lineages, distributed respectively in: western Iberian Peninsula, along the Atlantic coast and part of central Portugal (lineage A); Central and Eastern Spain (lineage C); and North-eastern Spain, France and North-western Italy (lineage D). The latter is in turn subdivided into two sub-clades, one in SE France and NW Italy and the other one from NE Spain to NW France, suggesting the existence of a Mediterranean-Atlantic corridor along the Garonne river. An information theory-based validation approach implemented in SpedeSTEM supports an arrangement of four candidate species, suggesting the need for a taxonomic revision of Western European Pelodytes. Leer más.