Data from: Biogeography and evolution of body size and life history of African frogs: phylogeny of squeakers (Arthroleptis) and long-fingered frogs (Cardioglossa) estimated from mitochondrial data

The evolutionary history of living African amphibians remains poorly understood. This study estimates the phylogeny within the frog genera Arthroleptis and Cardioglossa using approximately 2400 bases of mtDNA sequence data (12S, tRNA-Valine, and 16S genes) from half of the described species. Analyses are conducted using parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian methods. The effect of alignment on phylogeny estimation is explored by separately analyzing alignments generated with different gap costs and a consensus alignment. The consensus alignment results in species paraphyly, low nodal support, and incongruence with the results based on other alignments, which produced largely similar results. Most nodes in the phylogeny are highly supported, yet several topologies are inconsistent with previous hypotheses. The monophyly of Cardioglossa and of miniature species previously assigned to Schoutedenella was further examined using Templeton and Shimodaira–Hasegawa tests. Cardioglossa monophyly is rejected and C. aureoli is transferred to Arthroleptis. These tests do not reject Schoutedenella monophyly, but this hypothesis receives no support from non-parametric bootstrapping or Bayesian posterior probabilities. This phylogeny provides a framework for reconstructing historical biogeography and analyzing the evolution of body size and life history. Direct development and miniaturization appear at the base of Arthroleptis phylogeny concomitant with a range expansion from Central Africa to throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa.

现存非洲两栖动物的演化历史迄今仍知之甚少。本研究基于半数已描述物种的线粒体DNA（mtDNA）序列数据（涵盖12S、缬氨酸转运RNA（tRNA-Valine）及16S基因），共约2400个碱基，对节蛙属（Arthroleptis）与心舌蛙属（Cardioglossa）的系统发育关系进行估算。研究采用简约法、最大似然法及贝叶斯法开展分析。本研究通过分别分析不同空位成本下生成的序列比对结果与一致性比对结果，探究了序列比对对系统发育估算的影响。结果显示，一致性比对会导致物种并系群现象、节点支持度偏低，且与其他比对方法得到的结果存在不一致；而其余比对方法得到的结果整体高度相似。系统发育树的多数节点支持度极高，但部分拓扑结构与此前提出的演化假说存在冲突。本研究进一步通过坦普尔顿检验（Templeton test）与岛田-长谷川检验（Shimodaira–Hasegawa test），对心舌蛙属的单系性以及此前被归入施氏蛙属（Schoutedenella）的小型物种单系性进行验证。结果表明，心舌蛙属的单系性被推翻，金心舌蛙（Cardioglossa aureoli）被转移至节蛙属。上述检验未拒绝施氏蛙属单系性的假说，但该假说未得到非参数自举法或贝叶斯后验概率的支持。本研究构建的系统发育树为重建历史生物地理学、分析体型大小与生活史演化提供了理论框架。直接发育与体型小型化现象出现在节蛙属系统发育树的基部，同时伴随从中非向撒哈拉以南非洲大部分区域的分布扩张。