Origin and intra-island diversification of Sulawesi endemic Adrianichthyidae

Abstract Although the family Adrianichthyidae is broadly distributed throughout East and Southeast Asia, 19 endemic species, over half of the family, are distributed in Sulawesi, which is an island in Wallacea. However, it remains unclear how this Adrianichthyidae biodiversity hotspot was shaped. In this study, we reconstructed molecular phylogenies for the Sulawesi adrianichthyids and estimated the divergence times of major lineages to infer the detailed history of their origin and subsequent intra-island diversification. The mitochondrial and nuclear phylogenies revealed that Sulawesi adrianichthyids are monophyletic, which indicates that they diverged from a single common ancestor. Species in the earliest branching lineages are currently distributed in the central and southeastern parts of the island, indicating that the common ancestor colonized Sula Spur, which is a large promontory that projects from the Australian continental margin, from Asia by oversea dispersal c.a. 20 Mya. The first diversification event on Sulawesi, the split of the genus Adrianichthys , occurred c.a. 16 Mya, and resulted in the nesting of Adrianichthys within Oryzias . Strong geographic structure was evident in the phylogeny; many species in the lineages branching off early are riverine and widely distributed in the southeastern and southwestern arms of Sulawesi, which suggests that oversea dispersal between tectonic subdivisions of this island during the late Miocene (7–5 Mya) contributed to the distributions and diversification of the early branching lineages. In contrast, most species in the lineages branched off later are endemic to a single tectonic lake or lake system in the central Sulawesi, suggesting that habitat fragmentation due to the Pliocene collisions (c.a. 4 Mya) among the tectonic subdivisions was the primary factor for diversification of the late branching, lacustrine lineages. Adrianichthys and some Oryzias in a certain late branching lineage are sympatric in Lake Poso, which indicates multiple colonizations of these distinct lineages into this tectonic lake. Thus, the diversification of Sulawesi adrianichthyids largely reflects the complex geological history of this island.