RESEARCH ARTICLE Independent Transitions between Monsoonal and Arid Biomes Revealed by Systematic Revison of a Complex of Australian Geckos (Diplodactylus; Diplodactylidae) Paul M. Oliver1,2,3*, Patrick J. Couper4, Mitzy Pepper3 OPEN ACCESS 1. Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2. Department of Sciences, Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3. Division of Evolution, Ecology & Genetics, Research Citation: Oliver PM, Couper PJ, Pepper School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Captital Territory, Australia, 4. M (2014) Independent Transitions between Monsoonal and Arid Biomes Revealed by Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Systematic Revison of a Complex of Australian *
[email protected] Geckos (Diplodactylus; Diplodactylidae). PLoS ONE 9(12): e111895. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0111895 Editor: Matthias Sto¨ck, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Abstract Germany Received: May 22, 2014 How the widespread expansion and intensification of aridity through the Neogene Accepted: September 5, 2014 has shaped the Austral biota is a major question in Antipodean biogeography. Published: December 10, 2014 Lineages distributed across wide aridity gradients provide opportunities to examine the timing, frequency, and direction of transitions between arid and mesic regions. Copyright: ß 2014 Oliver et al. This is an open- access article distributed under the terms of the Here, we use molecular genetics and morphological data to investigate the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and repro- systematics and biogeography of a nominal Australian gecko species duction in any medium, provided the original author (Diplodactylus conspicillatus sensu lato) with a wide distribution spanning most of and source are credited.