Département Systématique et Evolution, UMR 7138, C.P. 26, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 57 Rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
Biol Lett. 2012 Oct 23;8(5):853-5. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0460. Epub 2012 Jul 18.
Monitor lizards are emblematic reptiles that are widely distributed in the Old World. Although relatively well studied in vertebrate research, their biogeographic history is still controversial. We constructed a molecular dataset for 54 anguimorph species, including representatives of all families with detailed sampling of the Varanidae (38 species). Our results are consistent with an Asian origin of the Varanidae followed by a dispersal to Africa 41 (49-33) Ma, possibly via an Iranian route. Another major event was the dispersal of monitors to Australia in the Late Eocene-Oligocene 32 (39-26) Ma. This divergence estimate adds to the suggestion that Australia was colonized by several squamate lineages prior to the collision of the Australian plate with the Asian plate starting 25 Ma.
monitor lizards 是广泛分布于旧大陆的标志性爬行动物。尽管它们在脊椎动物研究中得到了相对较好的研究，但它们的生物地理历史仍然存在争议。我们构建了一个包含 54 种 anguimorph 物种的分子数据集，包括详细采样的 varanidae（38 种）的所有科的代表。我们的结果与 varanidae 的亚洲起源一致，随后在 41（49-33）Ma 时通过伊朗路线扩散到非洲。另一个主要事件是 monitor 在晚始新世-渐新世 32（39-26）Ma 时扩散到澳大利亚。这一分歧估计增加了这样一种观点，即在 25 Ma 澳大利亚板块与亚洲板块碰撞之前，澳大利亚曾被几个有鳞目谱系殖民。
