Populating a Continent: Phylogenomics Reveal the Timing of Australian Frog Diversification

Abstract

The Australian continents size and isolation make it an ideal place for studying the accumulation and evolution of biodiversity. Long separated from the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, most of Australias plants and animals are unique and endemic, including the continents frogs. Australian frogs comprise a remarkable ecological and morphological diversity categorized into a small number of distantly related radiations. We present a phylogenomic hypothesis based on an exon-capture dataset that spans the main clades of Australian myobatrachoid, pelodryadid hyloid, and microhylid frogs. Our time-calibrated phylogenomic-scale phylogeny identifies great disparity in the relative ages of these groups which vary from Gondwanan relics to recent immigrants from Asia and include arguably the continents oldest living vertebrate radiation. This age stratification provides insight into the colonization of, and diversification on, the Australian continent through deep time, during periods of dramatic climatic and community changes. Contemporary Australian frog diversity highlights the adaptive capacity of anurans, particularly in response to heat and aridity, and explains why they are one of the continents most visible faunas.