Evolutionary history and eco-climatic diversification in southern African Sisyphus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae)

Aim: The high diversity of species in southern Africa has been attributed to geological and palaeoclimatic factors. The timing of radiations in some groups is held to be linked to these geoclimatic trends. Using the Scarabaeinae dung beetle genus, Sisyphus, as a model system, we investigate how geological uplift and climatic changes in the late Cenozoic affected its diversification patterns in southern Africa.

Location: southern Africa.

Taxon: The dung beetle genus, Sisyphus Latreille, 1807 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae).

Methods: A dated molecular phylogeny of southern African Sisyphus was compared with a factor analysis of species distribution data that statistically defined groups of species according to current climatic distribution. We used these climatic clusters to estimate ancestral ranges using the ‘BioGeoBEARS’ R package. A lineage through time plot was calculated using the R package ‘APE’. We used Bayesian diversification models (compound Poisson process on...