| Spadefoot toads (Pelobates) and Parsley frogs (Pelodytes) are an enigmatic group of Western Palaearctic anurans. In the genus Pelobates, a fossorial lifestyle has enforced a conserved bauplan that masks their intraspecific evolutionary history. We used partial sequences of the mitochondrial 16S and 12S rRNA genes to infer a paleobiogeographic scenario of speciation events in these two anuran genera. Based on two alternative, mutually exclusive calibrations of the Iberian-African split within Pelobates (Pb. cultripes and Pb. varaldii), the disjunction of the Betic Cordillera ca. 14-16 million years ago (mya), and the end of the Messinian Salinity crisis 5.33 mya, we inferred alternative scenarios for species evolution within both genera applying... |
