Phylogenomics Reveals Ancient Gene Tree Discordance in the Amphibian Tree of Life

Molecular phylogenies have yielded strong support for many parts of the amphibian Tree of Life, but poor support for the resolution of deeper nodes, including relationships among families and orders. To clarify these relationships, we provide a phylogenomic perspective on amphibian relationships by developing a taxon-specific Anchored Hybrid Enrichment protocol targeting hundreds of conserved exons which are effective across the class. After obtaining data from 220 loci for 286 species (representing 94% of the families and 44% of the genera), we estimate a phylogeny for extant amphibians and identify gene tree–species tree conflict across the deepest branches of the amphibian phylogeny. We perform locus-by-locus genealogical interrogation of alternative topological hypotheses for amphibian monophyly, focusing on interordinal relationships. We find that phylogenetic signal deep in the amphibian phylogeny varies greatly across loci in a manner that is consistent with incomplete lineage sorting in the ancestral lineage of extant amphibians. Our results overwhelmingly support amphibian monophyly and a sister relationship between frogs and salamanders, consistent with the Batrachia hypothesis. Species tree analyses converge on a small set of topological hypotheses for the relationships among extant amphibian families. These results clarify several contentious portions of the amphibian Tree of Life, which in conjunction with a set of vetted fossil calibrations, support a surprisingly younger timescale for crown and ordinal amphibian diversification than previously reported. More broadly, our study provides insight into the sources, magnitudes, and heterogeneity of support across loci in phylogenomic data sets

Figure 3 in 'On the rocks': reproductive biology of the endemic toad Xanthophryne (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Western Ghats, India

Figure 3. Xanthophryne male advertisement calls. Macrotemoporal structure of advertisement call of Xanthophryne koynayensis (a) and Xanthophryne tigerina (e). Microtemporal call structure of X. koynayensis (b, c) and X. tigerina (f, g) of a single advertisement call. Power spectrum showing the distribution of energy in a call of X. koynayensis (d) and X. tigerina (h).Published as part of Gaitonde, Nikhil, Giri, Varad & Kunte, Krushnamegh, 2016, 'On the rocks': reproductive biology of the endemic toad Xanthophryne (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Western Ghats, India, pp. 2557-2572 in Journal of Natural History 50 on page 2562, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2016.1200686, http://zenodo.org/record/399456

Figure 6 in 'On the rocks': reproductive biology of the endemic toad Xanthophryne (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Western Ghats, India

Figure 6. Road kill of a gravid Xanthophryne tigerina female.Published as part of Gaitonde, Nikhil, Giri, Varad & Kunte, Krushnamegh, 2016, 'On the rocks': reproductive biology of the endemic toad Xanthophryne (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Western Ghats, India, pp. 2557-2572 in Journal of Natural History 50 on page 2569, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2016.1200686, http://zenodo.org/record/399456

Data from: Evolution of ontogenic change in color defenses of swallowtail butterflies

Natural selection by visually-hunting predators has led to evolution of color defense strategies such as masquerade, crypsis and aposematism that reduce the risk of predation in prey species. These color defenses are not mutually exclusive, and switches between strategies with ontogenic development are widespread across taxa. However, the evolutionary dynamics of ontogenic color change are poorly understood. Using comparative phylogenetics, we studied the evolution of color defenses in the complex lifecycles of swallowtail butterflies (Family: Papilionidae). We also tested the relative importance of life history traits, chemical and visual backgrounds, and ancestry on the evolution of protective coloration. We found that vulnerable early and late instar caterpillars of species that feed on sparsely-vegetated, toxic plants were aposematic, whereas species that feed on densely-vegetated, non-toxic plants had masquerading and cryptic caterpillars. Masquerading caterpillars resembled bird droppings at early instars, and transitioned to crypsis with an increase in body size at late instars. The immobile pupae – safe from motion-detecting, visually hunting predators – retained the ancestral cryptic coloration in all lineages irrespective of the toxic nature of the host plant. Thus, color defense strategy (masquerade, crypsis or aposematism) at a particular lifestage in the lifecycle of swallowtail butterflies was determined by the interaction between life history traits such as body size and motion levels, phytochemical and visual backgrounds, and ancestry. We show that ontogenic color change in swallowtail butterflies is an adaptive response to age-dependent vulnerability to predation

'On the rocks': reproductive biology of the endemic toad Xanthophryne (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Western Ghats, India

Gaitonde, Nikhil, Giri, Varad, Kunte, Krushnamegh (2016): 'On the rocks': reproductive biology of the endemic toad Xanthophryne (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Western Ghats, India. Journal of Natural History 50: 2557-2572, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2016.1200686, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2016.120068

Dry sliding wear of epoxy/cenosphere syntactic foams

Dry sliding wear behavior of epoxy matrix syntactic foams filled with 20, 40 and 60 wt% fly ash cenosphere is reported based on response surface methodology. Empirical models are constructed and validated based on analysis of variance. Results show that syntactic foams have higher wear resistance than the matrix resin. Among the parameters studied, the applied normal load (F) had a prominent effect on wear rate, specific wear rate (w(s)) and coefficient of friction (mu). With increasing F, the wear rate increased, whereas ws and mu decreased. With increase in filler content, the wear rate and w(s) decreased, while the mu increased. With increase in sliding velocity as well as sliding distance, the wear rate and ws show decreasing trends. Microscopy revealed broken cenospheres forming debris and extensive deformation marks on the wear surface. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Disturbance values and dominant land use for each site surveyed.

<p>To facilitate spatial comment, the study area has been sub divided into three latitudinal zones each side of the escarpment.</p

Habitat association results from significant habitat associations identified in step wise analysis using AICc in distLM, Permanova+, Primer-e v7, where * = P<0.05, ** = P<0.01.Status is the IUCN threat status: Accessed 10/02/2017 [9].

<p>NA- Not Assessed; DD-Data Deficient; LC-Least Concern; EN-Endangered; CR-Critically Endangered. Population stability:/S-Stable; /D-Decreasing; /I-Increasing. RH-Relative Humidity; Rock -large loose rocks >50 mm; Rock N-abundance of small rocks<50 mm; Plant-%of area with woody plant cover; Soil-% of area with soil; Stream-stream in surveyed area; Pool-lentic pools within surveyed area; Flood-plateau surface flooded to a depth >25 mm; Agree-our habitat association agree with published findings; Elev-altitude above sea leavel taxa were found; Habitat Associations are those listed by the IUCN.</p