Species delimitation by Bayesian Phylogenetics and Phylogeography recovered five highly divergent genetic lineages within Rheobates, among which few to no migrants are exchanged according to IM. The data consisted of two mitochondrial and four nuclear genes from 24 samples covering most of the geographic range of the genus. In this study, we first evaluated previous hypotheses of species-level diversity, then fitted an isolation-with-migration (IM) historical demographic model, and tested two landscape genetic models to explain genetic divergence within Rheobates: isolation by distance and isolation by environment.
Previous phylogenetic work on the palm rocket frog (Anura: Aromobatidae: Rheobates spp.), endemic to midelevation forests of Colombia, suggested that valleys were important in promoting divergence between lineages. The complex topography of the species-rich northern Andes creates heterogeneous environmental landscapes that are hypothesized to have promoted population fragmentation and diversification by processes such as vicariance or local adaptation.
