Data from: Landscape evolution drives continental diversification in Neotropical freshwater fishes of the family Erythrinidae (Teleostei, Characiformes)

Aim: Evolutionary diversification and diversity patterns in Neotropical
freshwater fishes can, in part, be predicted by the effects of
geomorphological settings on landscape evolution. However, studies at a
continental scale, focusing on specific taxa that reflect the tight
connection between their evolutionary history and orogenic uplifts on the
tectonically active Western margin and watershed migration dynamics on the
passive Eastern margin of South America remain limited. Here, we
investigated biogeographical and chronological patterns of diversification
in the geographically widespread teleost family Erythrinidae
(Characiformes, Erythrinoidea). Location: Neotropical Region Time period:
Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic Taxon: Erythrinidae (Characiformes) Methods:
We used phylogenomic and parametric biogeographic methods. Our dataset
based on ultraconserved elements (UCEs) included 29 erythrinoid lineages
and 23 related taxa. Results: The time calibration along with ancestral
area estimation proposes that superfamily Erythrinoidea originated in the
Late Cretaceous ca. 80 Ma, with divergence of major clades during the
Paleogene ca. 51–31 Ma. Erythrinidae diversified rapidly after the
formation of the transcontinental Amazon River ca. 10 Ma, from eight
lineages to at least 28 putative species today. A majority of erythrinid
species (78%) are members of just three relatively young clades less than
13 Ma: Erythrinus, Hoplerythrinus, and Hoplias malabaricus group. Results
present contrasting temporal patterns of cladogenetic events on the two
continental margins: a pulsed age-distribution of biogeographic events on
the Western Margin as predicted by discrete tectonic uplifts of the
Northern Andean cordilleras, and a more continuous age-distribution on the
Eastern Margin as predicted by westward-propagating watershed migration.
Main conclusions: Historical changes in landscape connectivity have
influenced diversification in Erythrinidae, where Late Neogene uplifts of
the Northern Andean cordilleras profoundly structured freshwater diversity
gradients by fragmenting the aquatic faunas of cis- and trans-Andean
basins as well as portions of the sub-Andean Foreland basin, and merging
faunas of the Western and Eastern Amazonia with the onset of the
transcontinental Amazon River. Alternative diversification scenarios are
also consistent with available paleontological, paleogeographic, and
paleoenvironmental data.