The Last Stand of Angraecum: Biogeographic and Evolutionary History of Darwin's Muses
type: CreativeWork
description: The Orchidaceae are notable for their remarkable diversity and are regarded as one of the most charismatic families of flowering plants. Notwithstanding the biological significance of Orchidaceae, numerous systematic challenges persist. Inter- and intrageneric relationships in several tribes and subtribes remain poorly understood, particularly within subtribe Angraecinae (tribe Vandeae), which impedes the exploration of its biogeographical and evolutionary history. While the evolutionary history of subtribe Angraecinae has recently been addressed by numerous authors, its biogeographical history has only been studied for a limited number of areas within its full geographic distribution and/or for only a few of its taxa. Herein, phylogenetic, divergence-time estimation, and historical-biogeographical analyses were conducted using a comprehensive molecular dataset of six loci for Angraecinae with the objective of reconstructing ancestral areas of distribution of the subtribe. The results of the biogeographical study indicate that Angraecinae originated during the Miocene and that Madagascar represents its ancestral area. The group has undergone several independent dispersal events to neighboring islands in the Indian Ocean and to continental Africa. However, a single major dispersal event towards continental Africa is responsible for all taxa of the Afro-Neotropical clade. The resulting phylogenies also corroborated the polyphyly of Angraecum, the subtribe’s most diverse genus. Furthermore, while sectional relationships were poorly resolved, the majority of the sections were also found to be polyphyletic. The absence of a robust phylogenetic classification of Angraecum continues to hinder the formulation of hypotheses regarding its evolutionary history. Phylogenetic analyses based on a limited number of markers derived from Sanger sequencing have proved to be insufficient for informing the construction of such a classification. Using Angiosperms353, a target sequence c…
abstract: The Orchidaceae are notable for their remarkable diversity and are regarded as one of the most charismatic families of flowering plants. Notwithstanding the biological significance of Orchidaceae, numerous systematic challenges persist. Inter- and intrageneric relationships in several tribes and subtribes remain poorly understood, particularly within subtribe Angraecinae (tribe Vandeae), which impedes the exploration of its biogeographical and evolutionary history. While the evolutionary history of subtribe Angraecinae has recently been addressed by numerous authors, its biogeographical history has only been studied for a limited number of areas within its full geographic distribution and/or for only a few of its taxa. Herein, phylogenetic, divergence-time estimation, and historical-biogeographical analyses were conducted using a comprehensive molecular dataset of six loci for Angraecinae with the objective of reconstructing ancestral areas of distribution of the subtribe. The results of the biogeographical study indicate that Angraecinae originated during the Miocene and that Madagascar represents its ancestral area. The group has undergone several independent dispersal events to neighboring islands in the Indian Ocean and to continental Africa. However, a single major dispersal event towards continental Africa is responsible for all taxa of the Afro-Neotropical clade. The resulting phylogenies also corroborated the polyphyly of Angraecum, the subtribe’s most diverse genus. Furthermore, while sectional relationships were poorly resolved, the majority of the sections were also found to be polyphyletic. The absence of a robust phylogenetic classification of Angraecum continues to hinder the formulation of hypotheses regarding its evolutionary history. Phylogenetic analyses based on a limited number of markers derived from Sanger sequencing have proved to be insufficient for informing the construction of such a classification. Using Angiosperms353, a target sequence c…
author: Verlynde, Simon
keywords: Biodiversity, Biology, Botany, Evolution, Orchidaceae, Angraecum, Systematics, Angiosperms353, Biogeography
date published: 2025-02-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:59:14Z
provider: City University of New York - Graduate Center
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York