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.

滑翔形态广泛存在于东南亚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（Agamidae）蜥蜴与松鼠类。已有假说提出，滑翔性状的多次独立演化与东南亚雨林乔木区系的优势类群——龙脑香科植物（Dipterocarpaceae）的主导地位密切相关。若龙脑香科植物对东南亚脊椎动物滑翔性状的演化产生了影响，则各类滑翔脊椎动物的起源时间需不早于始新世（Eocene）。然而目前多数类群的分化时间仍未明确。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 analysis）与分子钟分析（molecular clock analysis）。本研究新增的壁虎类序列数据覆盖了所有已知滑翔壁虎属类群：宽趾壁虎属（Cosymbotus）、褶虎属（Luperosaurus）与飞壁虎属（Ptychozoon）；针对其他脊椎动物类群的分析则采用已公开的序列数据。包括所有壁虎类在内的多数滑翔脊椎动物的干群年龄，均集中在龙脑香科植物逐渐成为亚洲热带森林优势类群的地质时期。上述结果证实，滑翔性状与龙脑香科植物之间的相关性在时间维度上具备合理性，同时也提醒研究者不应贸然假定特化类群的起源时间较早。