Data from: Estimating synchronous demographic changes across populations using hABC and its application for a herpetological community from northeastern Brazil

Many studies propose that Quaternary climatic cycles contracted and /or
expanded the ranges of species and biomes. Strong expansion-contraction
dynamics of biomes presume concerted demographic changes of associated
fauna. The analysis of temporal concordance of demographic changes can be
used to test the influence of Quaternary climate on diversification
processes. Hierarchical approximate Bayesian computation (hABC) is a
powerful and flexible approach that models genetic data from multiple
species, and can be used to estimate the temporal concordance of
demographic processes. Using available single-locus data we can now
perform large-scale analyses, both in terms of number of species and
geographic scope. Here we first compared the power of four alternative
hABC models for a collection of single-locus data. We found that the model
incorporating an a priori hypothesis about the timing of simultaneous
demographic change had the best performance. Secondly, we applied the hABC
models to a dataset of 7 squamate and 4 amphibian species occurring in the
Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (Caatinga) in Northeastern Brazil, which,
according to paleoclimatic evidence, experienced an increase in aridity
during the Pleistocene. If this increase was important for the
diversification of associated xeric-adapted species, simultaneous
population expansions should be evident at the community level. We found a
strong signal of synchronous population expansion in the Late Pleistocene,
supporting the expansion of the Caatinga during this time. This expansion
likely enhanced the formation of communities adapted to high aridity and
seasonality and caused regional extirpation of taxa adapted to wet forest.