Are rates of diversification in subterranean South American tuco-tucos (genus Ctenomys, Rodentia: Octodontidae) unusually high?

Abstract

Subterranean rodents have been used frequently as examples of explosive speciation in mammals. We tested for differential rates of diversification by using information from molecular phylogenies to focus primarily on tuco-tucos (Rodentia: Octodontidae), the most speclose lineage of subterranean rodents. Tuco-tucos were not significantly more diverse than their sister taxon (octodontines), however, a lineages-through-time analysis suggests an increase in diversification at the base of the tuco-tuco clade.