Vicariance or long-distance dispersal: Historical biogeography of the pantropical subfamily Chrysophylloideae (Sapotaceae)

Abstract

Aim Continental disjunctions in pantropical taxa have been explained by vicariance or long?distance dispersal. The relative importance of these explanations in shaping current distributions may vary, depending on historical backgrounds or biological characteristics of particular taxa. We aimed to determine the geographical origin of the pantropical subfamily Chrysophylloideae (Sapotaceae) and the roles vicariance and dispersal have played in shaping its modern distribution. Location Tropical areas of Africa, Australasia and South America. Methods We utilized a recently published, comprehensive data set including 66 species and nine molecular markers. Bayesian phylogenetic trees were generated and dated using five fossils and the penalized likelihood approach. Distributional ranges of nodes were estimated using maximum likelihood and parsimony analyses. In both biogeographical and molecular dating analyses, phylogenetic and branch length uncertainty was taken into account by averaging the results over 2000 trees extracted from the Bayesian stationary sample.