Historical demography of four gecko species specializing in boulder cave habitat: Implications in the evolutionary dead end hypothesis and conservation

• Published in: Molecular ecology Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 772 - 784
• Main Authors: Nguyen, Hung N., Lu, Chia‐Wei, Chu, Jui‐Hua, Grismer, Larry Lee, Hung, Chih‐Ming, Lin, Si‐Min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2019
• Subjects: Biological evolution; Caves; cave‐dwelling species; Coalescence; Coalescing; Conservation; demographic history; Demographics; Demography; Divergence; Ecological monitoring; Ecological niches; Erosion; Evolution; extinction; Floodplains; Geckos; Gekkonidae; Gene flow; Granite; Habitats; Hills; Hypotheses; Niches; Population; Population decline; Population differentiation; Population dynamics; RAD‐seq; river deltas; Shrinkage; Specialization; Speciation; Species extinction

Specialization in narrow ecological niches may not only help species to survive in competitive or unique environments but also contribute to their extermination over evolutionary time. Although the “evolutionary dead end” hypothesis has long been debated, empirical evidence from species with detaile...