ARE RATES OF DIVERSIFICATION IN SUBTERRANEAN SOUTH AMERICAN TUCO-TUCOS (GENUS CTENOMYS, RODENTIA: OCTODONTIDAE) UNUSUALLY HIGH?

Joseph A Cook; Enrique P Lessa

doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.1998.tb02035.x

ARE RATES OF DIVERSIFICATION IN SUBTERRANEAN SOUTH AMERICAN TUCO-TUCOS (GENUS CTENOMYS, RODENTIA: OCTODONTIDAE) UNUSUALLY HIGH?

Evolution. 1998 Oct;52(5):1521-1527. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1998.tb02035.x.

Authors

Joseph A Cook¹, Enrique P Lessa²

Affiliations

¹ University of Alaska Museum and Institute of Arctic Biology, 907 Yukon Drive, Fairbanks, Alaska, 99775-6960.
² Laboratorio de Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias, Casilla de Correos 12106, Montevideo, 11300, Uruguay.

PMID: 28565377
DOI: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1998.tb02035.x

Abstract

Subterranean rodents have been used frequently as examples of explosive speciation in mammals. We tested for differential rates of diversification by using information from molecular phylogenies to focus primarily on tuco-tucos (Rodentia: Octodontidae), the most speciose lineage of subterranean rodents. Tuco-tucos were not significantly more diverse than their sister taxon (octodontines); however, a lineages-through-time analysis suggests an increase in diversification at the base of the tuco-tuco clade.

Keywords: Adaptive radiation; cladogenesis; rodent; speciation; subterranean; tree balance.