3.4 Contemporary migration and genetic diversity
Through our EEMS analyses we identified several present-day barriers to
migration, as well as areas of higher- or lower-than-expected genetic
diversity. The Dahomey Gap and the western Congo River were supported as
major barriers to dispersal when we simultaneously analyzed all data for
both species of Toxicodryas (Fig. 5a). Areas of
lower-than-expected diversity were suggested for the coast of Central
Africa and higher levels of West African diversity in in the Upper
Guinean rainforest (Fig. 5b). We also ran EEMS individually for T.
blandingii and T. pulverulenta , but these analyses are more
difficult to interpret because of the small sample sizes for each
individual species (Fig. S4).