Shared response to changes in drainage basin: Phylogeography of the Yunnan Small Narrow-mouthed Frog, Glyphoglossus yunnanensis (Anura: Microhylidae)

Aim: With the late Cenozoic uplift of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), drainage of the southeastern edge of the QTP changed significantly. However, the impact of this dramatic change on the geographical distribution and genetic diversity of endemic organisms is still poorly understood. Here, we examined the geographical patterns of genetic variation in the Yunnan small narrow-mouthed frog, Glyphoglossus yunnanensis (Microhylidae), and two alternative hypotheses were tested: that is, the geographical distribution of genetic variation was determined by either the contemporary drainage basin or by historical drainage basins.

Location: the Mountains of Southwest China.

Materials and methods: Analyses were based on 417 specimens collected from across the distribution of the species. We reconstructed the genealogy (Bayesian and maximum parsimony methods) and assessed demographic history based on DNA sequencing data from mitochondrial and nuclear markers. We also mapped the genetic di...