Figure 2.

(a,b) History of the Panama Isthmus (adapted from [69]), its relationships with dispersal time estimates (adapted from [68]) as well as different proposals for implementing priors for terrestrial (green) and shallow-marine (blue) taxa. The red dashed line indicates the generally assumed timing of the Isthmus closure (ca 3.5 Ma). The upper two priors (b) are based on likelihood of dispersal and vicariant events based on cross-taxon analyses (in (a)). The lower two are based on the potential relationship between the geological data on the establishment of the Panama Isthmus (listed in (a)) and divergence in groups with different dispersal abilities. If no clear link between environmental changes and/or dispersal abilities can be established, it might be the more adequate to use a uniform prior across all intervals.