Exceptional levels of species discovery ameliorate inferences of the biogeography and diversification of an Afrotropical catfish family

Endeavours in species discovery, particularly the characterisation of cryptic species, have been greatly aided by the application of DNA molecular sequence data to phylogenetic reconstruction and inference of evolutionary and biogeographic processes. However, the extent of cryptic and undescribed diversity remains unclear in tropical freshwaters, where biodiversity is declining at alarming rates. To investigate how data on previously undiscovered biodiversity impacts inferences of biogeography and diversification dynamics, we generated a densely sampled species-level family tree of Afrotropical Mochokidae catfishes that was ca. 70% complete. This was achieved through extensive continental sampling specifically targeting the genus Chiloglanis a specialist of the relatively unexplored fast-flowing lotic habitat. Applying multiple species-delimitation methods, we report exceptional levels of species discovery for a vertebrate genus, conservatively delimiting a staggering ca. 50 putative ne..., , Matricies can be opened in Geneious software or a text editor. Programmes used to analyse these data inlcude Mr Bayes, IQ-Tree, BEAST.,

物种发现，尤其是隐存物种（cryptic species）的特征描述工作，已因将DNA分子序列数据用于系统发育重建（phylogenetic reconstruction）以及演化和生物地理过程（biogeographic processes）的推断而获得极大助力。然而，在生物多样性正以惊人速度下降的热带淡水生态系统中，隐存多样性和未描述物种的丰富程度仍不明晰。为探究未被发现的生物多样性数据如何影响生物地理及物种分化动态的推断，我们构建了埃塞俄比亚界倒立鲶科（Mochokidae）鲶鱼的高密度采样物种水平系统发育树，其完整度约为70%。该数据集通过针对缨唇鲶属（Chiloglanis）的大范围洲际采样完成，该属物种专栖息于相对未被充分探索的急流流水生境（lotic habitat）。通过应用多种物种界定方法，我们在该脊椎动物属中发现了极高的物种丰富度，经保守界定后仍得到了多达约50个推定新（ne...）物种。数据矩阵可通过Geneious软件或文本编辑器打开。用于分析这些数据的程序包括MrBayes、IQ-Tree以及BEAST。