Data from: A journey on plate tectonics sheds light on European crayfish phylogeography

Crayfish can be used as model organisms in phylogeographic and divergence
time studies if reliable calibrations are available. This study presents a
comprehensive investigation into the phylogeography of the European stone
crayfish (Austropotamobius torrentium) and includes samples from
previously unstudied sites. Two mitochondrial markers were used to reveal
evolutionary relationships among haplogroups throughout the species’
distributional range and to estimate the divergence time by employing both
substitution rates and geological calibration methods. Our haplotype
network reconstruction and phylogenetic analyses revealed the existence of
a previously unknown haplogroup distributed in Romania's Apuseni
Mountains. This haplogroup is closely related to others that are endemic
in the Dinarides, despite their vast geographical separation (~600 km).
The separation is best explained by the well-dated tectonic displacement
of the Tisza-Dacia microplate, which started in the Miocene (~16 Ma) and
possibly carried part of the A. torrentium population to the current
location of the Apuseni Mountains. This population may thus have been
isolated from the Dinarides for a period of ca. 11 m.y. by marine and
lacustrine phases of the Pannonian Basin. The inclusion of this geological
event as a calibration point in divergence time analyses challenges
currently accepted crayfish evolutionary time frames for the region,
constraining the evolution of this area’s crayfish to a much earlier date.
We discuss why molecular clock calibrations previously employed to date
European crayfish species divergences should therefore be reconsidered.