Evolutionary History of Marsupials and Rodents from the Pernambuco Endemism Center

• Grant number: 25/03610-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: July 31, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology
• Principal Investigator: Joyce Rodrigues Do Prado
• Grantee: Larissa Eler Fernandes
• Host Institution: Museu de Zoologia (MZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/12632-0 - An old sample tells a good story: the evolutionary history of mammals from the diagonal of open vegetation of South America told by biological collections, AP.BTA.JP

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, recognized for its high diversity and endemism, driven by events of connection and isolation with the Amazon over the last million years, together with environmental heterogeneity throughout its distribution. Among the five centers of endemism recognized in the biome, the Pernambuco Endemism Center (PEC) is considered a hotspot within a hotspot due to the high loss and fragmentation of its forests. The PEC fauna stands out for the affinities it shares with the Amazon and Caatinga regions, making it unique and distinct in relation to other areas of the Atlantic Forest. Given the relevance of this region, we intend to explore the evolutionary history of small mammals in the PEC, elucidating their faunal affinities with adjacent biomes. Specimens of marsupials and rodents from the PEC will be analyzed, as well as their sister populations/species from adjacent regions, including the Atlantic Forest, Amazon, Caatinga and Cerrado. Based on the hybrid enrichment technique using Ultraconserved Elements (UCEs), the demographic and phylogeographic history of individuals from the PEC will be investigated by analyzing regions of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Dated phylogenetic inferences will be performed, as well as analyses of genetic structure and demographic modeling for each target species. These results will contribute to a better understanding of the evolutionary history of PEC mammals, including the divergence of PEC lineages and the role of dispersal and vicariance processes in the diversification of these lineages. The data obtained will also help in the conservation of this region, which is still so little known and very devastated.