@article {94, title = {Phylogenetics and diversification history of African rattans (Calamoideae, Ancistrophyllinae).}, year = {2016}, abstract = {

Even though African rain forests display high levels of local species diversity and endemism, their lower
continental species diversity when compared with the Neotropics and Asia is paradoxical. This disparity is
mainly thought to be linked to either important extinction events during the Pleistocene or at the Eocene\–
Oligocene boundary. African rattans or climbing palms are one of the most diverse clades of palms in Africa,
representing one-third of all known species. Here, we reconstruct the phylogeny and temporal evolution of
African rattans (Arecaceae: Calamoideae: Lepidocaryeae: Ancistrophyllinae) to test the two main hypotheses of
palm evolution in Africa. We constructed a near-complete, dated species-level phylogenetic tree for subtribe
Ancistrophyllinae using plastid and nuclear markers. The generic relationships between Ancistrophyllinae were
fully resolved and species-level relationships are well to weakly supported. Ancistrophyllinae diversified during
the Eocene with most species originating during the late Miocene after 10 Mya. This result is in agreement with
several other studies suggesting a pre\–Pleistocene origin of the extant African flora. Ancistrophyllinae display an
anti-sigmoidal lineage-through-time plot with a moderate overall extinction fraction. Our simulations suggest
important roles for an ancient extinction event at the Oligocene\–Eocene boundary. In contrast, the hypothesis of
an important extinction event in palms during the late Pliocene at 3 Mya is not supported. We suggest that the
evolutionary history of African rattans has undergone a constant diversification rate punctuated by one or
several important extinction events during the first part of the Cenozoic with most species diversity accumulating
during the late Miocene and Pliocene.

}, doi = {10.1111/boj.12454.}, author = {Adama Faye and Jean-Christophe Pintaud and William J. Baker Fls and Yves Vigouroux and Bonaventure Sonk{\'e} and Thomas L. P. Couvreur} } @article {84, title = {Complete plastome sequences of 14 African yam species (Dioscorea spp.).}, year = {2019}, author = {Jacqueline Magw{\'e}-Tindo and Jan J. Wieringa and Bonaventure Sonk{\'e} and Louis Zapfack and Yves Vigouroux and Thomas L. P. Couvreur and Nora Scarcelli} }