Data from: Evolution of gliding in Southeast Asian geckos and other vertebrates is temporally congruent with dipterocarp forest development

Gliding morphologies occur in diverse vertebrate lineages in Southeast Asian rainforests, including three gecko genera, plus frogs, snakes, agamid lizards, and squirrels. It has been hypothesized that repeated evolution of gliding is related to the dominance of Asian rainforest tree floras by dipterocarps. For dipterocarps to have influenced the evolution of gliding in Southeast Asian vertebrates, gliding lineages must have Eocene or later origins. However, divergence times are not known for most lineages. To investigate the temporal pattern of Asian gliding vertebrate evolution, we performed phylogenetic and molecular clock analyses. New sequence data for geckos incorporate exemplars of each gliding genus (Cosymbotus, Luperosaurus, and Ptychozoon), whereas analyses of other vertebrate lineages use existing sequence data. Stem ages of most gliding vertebrates, including all geckos, cluster in the time period when dipterocarps came to dominate Asian tropical forests. These results demonstrate that a gliding/dipterocarp correlation is temporally viable, and caution against the assumption of early origins for apomorphic taxa.

滑翔形态（gliding morphologies）广泛分布于东南亚雨林的多个脊椎动物支系中，包含3个壁虎属类群，另涵盖蛙类、蛇类、鬣蜥科蜥蜴与松鼠类。已有假说提出，滑翔性状的多次独立演化，与东南亚雨林植物区系以龙脑香科植物（dipterocarps）为优势类群这一特征存在关联。若要龙脑香科植物对东南亚脊椎动物的滑翔演化产生影响，则各类滑翔支系的起源时间需不早于始新世（Eocene）。然而，绝大多数支系的分化时间仍未明确。为探究东南亚滑翔脊椎动物演化的时间模式，本研究开展了系统发育分析与分子钟分析。本研究新增的壁虎类序列数据涵盖了所有滑翔壁虎属的代表类群：平尾虎属（Cosymbotus）、卢珀壁虎属（Luperosaurus）与褶虎属（Ptychozoon）；其余脊椎动物支系的分析则采用已公开的序列数据。绝大多数滑翔脊椎动物（含全部壁虎类群）的茎干分化时间（stem age）均集中于龙脑香科植物主导东南亚热带森林的地质时段。本研究结果证实，滑翔性状与龙脑香科植物的相关性在时间维度上成立；同时提醒学界不应默认衍征类群（apomorphic taxa）的起源时间偏早。