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Aim A small fauna of amphibious snails (genus Assiminea Fleming, 1828) living in association with highly mineralized springs in the Death Valley?lower Colorado River region (DVLCR) is thought to be a relict of the Bouse Embayment, a putative late Miocene?early Pliocene transgression of the ancestral Gulf of California along the lower Colorado River valley. We analysed the phylogenetic relationships of this fauna using mtDNA sequence data (1171 bp) to determine whether, as would be consistent with this hypothesis, it forms a substantially divergent unit sister to marine coastal congeners. Location South-western Great Basin and lower Colorado River region, USA. Methods Two genes [mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase...
Understanding the timing of mountain building and desert formation events in western North America is crucial to understanding the evolutionary history of the diverse arid-adapted biota that is found there. While many different, often conflicting descriptions exist regarding geobiotic change in western North America, little work has been done to synthesize these various viewpoints. In this paper we present several case studies that illustrate the differences in the various explanations, based on geological and paleobiological data, detailing mountain uplift and desertification in western North America. The majority of the descriptions detailing mountain building in this area fall into two major periods of uplift,...
In this paper, we develop a five-step approach for analysis of historical relationships among areas of endemism using a set of 22 clades (9 mammal, 7 bird, 4 reptile, 1 amphibian, and 1 cactus) drawn from the warm deserts biota of western North America. As has been suggested in previous studies of portions of this biota, our results suggest a complex biogeographic history, but with substantial support for the influence of several major vicariant events in the diversification and assembly of the aridlands biota. We discuss and demonstrate the reciprocal strengths (and weaknesses) of phylogeography and phylogenetic biogeography for defining areas of endemism, analysing vicariance and dispersal, and dealing with temporal...