Tempo and mode of evolution of oryzomyine rodents (Rodentia, Cricetidae, Sigmodontinae): A phylogenomic approach

[Display omitted] •Over 400 loci dataset provides a genomic-wide phylogenetic hypothesis for Oryzomyini.•Maximum Likelihood and Astral analysis revealed novel relationships within Oryzomyini.•We corroborated the monophyly of three main clades of tribe Oryzomyini.•Origin of the tribe was in the Miocene and high speciation in the Pleistocene.•Amazon basin was estimated geographic origin for the ancestor of oryzomyines.•Dispersal was the main driver of the diversification of the tribe. The tribe Oryzomyini is an impressive group of rodents, comprising 30 extant genera and an estimated 147 species. Recent remarkable advances in the understanding of the diversity, taxonomy and systematics of the tribe have mostly derived from analyses of single or few genetic markers. However, the evolutionary history and biogeography of Oryzomyini, its origin and diversification across the Neotropics, remain unrevealed. Here we use a multi-locus dataset (over 400 loci) obtained through anchored phylogenomics to provide a genome-wide phylogenetic hypothesis for Oryzomyini and to investigate the tempo and mode of its evolution. Species tree and supermatrix analyses produced topologies with strong support for most branches, with all genera confirmed as monophyletic, a result that previous studies failed to obtain. Our analyses also corroborated the monophyly and phylogenetic relationship of three main clades of Oryzomyini (B, C and D). The origin of the tribe is estimated to be in the Miocene (8.93–5.38 million years ago). The cladogenetic events leading to the four main clades occurred during the late Miocene and early Pliocene and most speciation events in the Pleistocene. Geographic range estimates suggested an east of Andes origin for the ancestor of oryzomyines, most likely in the Boreal Brazilian region, which includes the north bank of Rio Amazonas and the Guiana Shield. Oryzomyini rodents are an autochthonous South America radiation, that colonized areas and dominions of this continent mainly by dispersal events. The evolutionary history of the tribe is deeply associated with the Andean cordillera and the landscape history of Amazon basin.