Name: Felipe Donateli Gatti
Type: PhD thesis
Publication date: 07/06/2021
Advisor:

Name	Role
Frederico Falcão Salles	Co-advisor *
Yuri Luiz Reis Leite	Advisor *

Examining board:

Name	Role
Ana Carolina Loss Rodrigues	Internal Examiner *
Cecília Waichert Monteiro	Internal Examiner *
Daniela Maeda Takiya	External Examiner *
Eduardo Andrade Botelho de Almeida	External Examiner *
Frederico Falcão Salles	Co advisor *
Gustavo Rocha Leite	Internal Alternate *
Joyce Rodrigues de Araujo	External Alternate *
Yuri Luiz Reis Leite	Advisor *

Summary: Atalophlebiinae (Ephemeroptera, Leptophlebiidae) is a
mayfly subfamily present in temperate and mountainous areas of
South America and Australia. In the first chapter, we tested the
hypothesis that both vicariance and dispersal related to the
Gondwana breakup contributed to the origin, diversification and
shaped the current distribution of this group. The hypothesis was
tested using Bayesian phylogenetic trees, fossil based molecular
dating and ancestral range estimation to reconstruct the
biogeography of the lineages within this group. The results
suggested an origin in the late Gondwana supercontinent for
Atalophlebiinae after a vicariant event during the Cretaceous
period. Subsequently, the lineage diversified into a scenario
that refers to a Gondwanic corridor formed by South America,
Antarctica and Australia. At the end of the separation of the
continents that made up the Gondwanic corridor, speciation
occurred within the current distribution areas. The diversity and
current distribution of Atalophlebiinae were shaped by complex
processes of vicariance, dispersal and speciation within the
Gondwanic corridor during the second phase of the supercontinent
breakup. In the second chapter, considering the complex landscape
dynamic in the South America, we investigated the evolutionary
history of Massartella Lestage, 1930 (Ephemeroptera,
Leptophlebiidae, Atalophlebiinae). The genus is currently
composed of five species endemic to this continent, adapted to
cold environments and mountaintops in rainforests regions.
Massartella has a disjunct distribution, occurring in mountains
along the Atlantic Forest and in the Venezuelan Pantepui region,
but being absent between these areas. Here we use Bayesian
phylogenetic trees and fossil based molecular dating to
reconstruct the evolutionary history of Massartella. Results
recovered the genus, and the Pantepui and Atlantic Forest
lineages as reciprocally monophyletic and suggest that the last
common ancestor of these clades lived ca. 66.84 mya during the
Cretaceous–Paleogene. The diversification processes started at
the same time in both lineages, and the relationships among
species of the Pantepui were recovered with high support. On the
other hand, many relationships among taxonomic units in the
Atlantic Forest mountains remained unclear. The reciprocal
monophyly of clades indicates no subsequent connections between
these areas, or the extinction of intermediates. Mountain
biodiversity has the signature of both ancient and recent
geoclimatic events and ecological processes, and climatic
oscillations and cycles of marine incursions in the South America
may have been responsible for isolating the Pantepui and Atlantic
Forest lineages, as well as the speciation processes within these
regions.

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