Vergleichende Nahrungsökologie von Mausmaki-Arten (Microcebus spp.) in Nordwest-Madagaskar vor dem Hintergrund artspezifischer biogeographischer Muster

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Madagascar, like other islands with long-term isolation, has a highly diversified fauna with a complex mix of local and regional endemics. The evolutionary processes that led to these divergences in range sizes are far from understood. The aim of this study is to employ modern modelling techniques in order to test for the first time two general alternative scenarios (“Variable Elevational Plasticity” vs. “Variable Colonization Times”) that may explain the evolution of particularly large range sizes. We will focus on a very diverse model genus, the small, nocturnal, arboreal mouse lemurs (Microcebus spp.), since they occur throughout all forest habitats of Madagascar, are usually not hunted, respond less to habitat disturbances than other species, and have a very short generation time (1 yr) that allows us to readily detect and disentangle genetic signals of both ancient and recent demographic and spatial processes. Various molecular datasets will be modelled with different state of the art approaches in order to determine the timing of diversification for species with large vs. small distributions, and to illuminate and date the phylogeographic history, including the geographic origin, of the species with the largest distribution, the grey mouse lemur, across its complete range. Morphological (phenotypic) and ecological data from the field will complement the analyses and will allow to test whether phenotypic variability and genetic differentiation is better explained by habitat characteristics or by geographic distance among study sites.