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）广泛存在于东南亚热带雨林的多样脊椎动物类群中，涵盖3个壁虎属（gecko genera）类群，此外还包括蛙类、蛇类、鬣蜥科蜥蜴（agamid lizards）以及松鼠类。已有假说提出，滑翔行为的多次独立演化与东南亚热带雨林植物区系以龙脑香科（dipterocarps）植物占主导地位存在关联。若龙脑香科植物要对东南亚脊椎动物的滑翔演化产生影响，则各类滑翔类群的起源时间需不早于始新世（Eocene）。然而，大多数类群的分化时间目前尚未明确。为探究东南亚滑翔脊椎动物演化的时间格局，本研究开展了系统发育分析（phylogenetic analyses）与分子钟分析（molecular clock analyses）。本研究针对壁虎类生成的新序列数据涵盖了各滑翔壁虎属的代表物种：裸趾虎属（Cosymbotus）、褶虎属（Luperosaurus）以及翼虎属（Ptychozoon）；而针对其他脊椎动物类群的分析则采用已有的序列数据。包括所有壁虎类在内的绝大多数滑翔脊椎动物的茎干年龄（stem ages），集中于龙脑香科植物成为东南亚热带森林优势类群的地质时段。本研究结果证实，滑翔行为与龙脑香科植物之间的关联在时间维度上具备合理性，同时提醒学界不应贸然假设衍征类群（apomorphic taxa）的起源时间较早。