Multiple trans-Torres Strait colonisations by tree frogs in the Litoria caerulea group, with the description of a new species from New Guinea
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Author(s)
Oliver, Paul M
Rittmeyer, Eric N
Torkkola, Janne
Donnellan, Stephen C
Dahl, Chris
Richards, Stephen J
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2020
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Australia and New Guinea (together referred to as Sahul) were linked by land for much of the late Tertiary and share many biotic elements. However, New Guinea is dominated by rainforest, and northern Australia by savannah. Resolving patterns of biotic interchange between these two regions is critical to understanding the expansion and contraction of both habitat types. The green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) has a vast range across northern and eastern Australia and New Guinea. An assessment of mitochondrial and morphological diversity in this nominal taxon in New Guinea reveals two taxa. True Litoria caerulea occurs in ...
View more >Australia and New Guinea (together referred to as Sahul) were linked by land for much of the late Tertiary and share many biotic elements. However, New Guinea is dominated by rainforest, and northern Australia by savannah. Resolving patterns of biotic interchange between these two regions is critical to understanding the expansion and contraction of both habitat types. The green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) has a vast range across northern and eastern Australia and New Guinea. An assessment of mitochondrial and morphological diversity in this nominal taxon in New Guinea reveals two taxa. True Litoria caerulea occurs in disjunct savannahs of the Trans-Fly, Central Province and across northern Australia, with very low genetic divergence, implying late Pleistocene connectivity. A previously unrecognised taxon is endemic to New Guinea and widespread in lowland swampy rainforest. Date estimates for the divergence of the new species suggest Pliocene connectivity across lowland tropical habitats of northern Australia and New Guinea. In contrast, the new species shows shallow phylogeographic structuring across the central mountains of New Guinea, implying recent dispersal between the northern and southern lowlands. These results emphasise that the extent and connectivity of lowland rainforest and savannah environments across northern Australia and southern New Guinea have undergone profound shifts since the late Pliocene.
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View more >Australia and New Guinea (together referred to as Sahul) were linked by land for much of the late Tertiary and share many biotic elements. However, New Guinea is dominated by rainforest, and northern Australia by savannah. Resolving patterns of biotic interchange between these two regions is critical to understanding the expansion and contraction of both habitat types. The green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) has a vast range across northern and eastern Australia and New Guinea. An assessment of mitochondrial and morphological diversity in this nominal taxon in New Guinea reveals two taxa. True Litoria caerulea occurs in disjunct savannahs of the Trans-Fly, Central Province and across northern Australia, with very low genetic divergence, implying late Pleistocene connectivity. A previously unrecognised taxon is endemic to New Guinea and widespread in lowland swampy rainforest. Date estimates for the divergence of the new species suggest Pliocene connectivity across lowland tropical habitats of northern Australia and New Guinea. In contrast, the new species shows shallow phylogeographic structuring across the central mountains of New Guinea, implying recent dispersal between the northern and southern lowlands. These results emphasise that the extent and connectivity of lowland rainforest and savannah environments across northern Australia and southern New Guinea have undergone profound shifts since the late Pliocene.
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Journal Title
Australian Journal of Zoology
Volume
68
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© CSIRO 2020. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.
Subject
Environmental sciences
Biological sciences
Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Zoology
Australian Monsoonal Tropics
biotic exchange