Diversification dynamics in the Neotropics through time, clades, and biogeographic regions

Abstract

The origins and evolution of the outstanding Neotropical biodiversity are a matter of intense debate. A comprehensive understanding is hindered by the lack of deep-time comparative data across wide phylogenetic and ecological contexts. Here, we quantify the prevailing diversification trajectories and drivers of Neotropical diversification in a sample of 150 phylogenies (12,512 species) of seed plants and tetrapods, and assess their variation across Neotropical regions and taxa. Analyses indicate that Neotropical diversity has mostly expanded through time (70% of the clades), while scenarios of saturated and declining diversity account for 21% and 9% of Neotropical diversity, respectively. Five biogeographic areas are identified as distinctive units of long-term Neotropical evolution, including Pan-Amazonia, the Dry Diagonal, and Bahama-Antilles. Diversification dynamics do not differ across these areas, suggesting no geographic structure in long-term Neotropical diversification. In contrast, diversification dynamics differ across taxa: plant diversity mostly expanded through time (88%), while a substantial fraction (43%) of tetrapod diversity accumulated at a slower pace or declined toward the present. These opposite evolutionary patterns may reflect different capacities for plants and tetrapods to cope with past climate changes.

Machine learning and phylogenetic models identify predictors of genetic variation in Neotropical amphibians

“…Under this scenario, species would have accumulated faster towards the present mainly due to recent geological and climatic perturbations (e.g. the elevation of the Andes) (Meseguer et al., 2022). The potential under‐split species in our data set are therefore expected to be young or recently diverged, which is one of the mechanisms causing cryptic diversity (Fišer et al., 2018).…”

Machine learning and phylogenetic models identify predictors of genetic variation in Neotropical amphibians

“…Higher environmental and climatic heterogeneity may lead to diversification dynamics with higher speciation and lower extinction rates supporting rapid evolution in the Neotropics (Brown, 2014). Under this scenario, species would have accumulated faster towards the present mainly due to recent geological and climatic perturbations (e.g., the elevation of the Andes) (Meseguer et al, 2022). The potential under-split species in our data set are therefore expected to be young or recently diverged, which is one of the mechanisms causing cryptic diversity (Fišer et al, 2018).…”

Early evolution of the megadiverse subtribe Philonthina (Staphylinidae: Staphylininae: Staphylinini) and its Neotropical lineage

“…The conventional model of GABI refers to the exchange of land mammals between North (NA) and South America (SA) that began ∼3 Ma with the establishment of the Isthmus of Panama. Recent evidence indicates that (1) the GABI also involved significant dispersals of taxa other than land mammals between NA and SA before the closure of the Isthmus (Meseguer et al, 2022), and (2) the Central American Seaway (CAS), separating NA from SA, was interrupted by an evolving volcanic arc as early as ∼12 Ma, as the southwestern margin of the Caribbean plate collided with the South American continent (Coates et al, 2004; Cody et al, 2010). While the modern concept of GABI refers to the establishment of the strongest linkage between NA and SA through the closure of the CAS being already underway by ∼12 Ma, there was an even earlier but intermittent connection between NA and SA at the end of the Cretaceous, around 80–60 Ma, known as the First American Biotic Interchange (FABI) (Patterson et al, 2012).…”

“…There is compelling evidence of the role that these palaeobiogeographic events, that is, intermittent disconnection between NA and SA since the Late Cretaceous, FABI, GABI, the Andean uplift, and the Pebas system, played in shaping the distribution of the modern biota in the Americas (e.g., Antonelli, Kissling, et al, 2018;Hoorn et al, 2010;Jaramillo, 2019;Rahbek et al, 2019). However, evolutionary histories may vary depending on environmental drivers, geographic settings, and studied taxonomic groups, each representing an 'idiosyncratic story' (Antonelli, Ariza, et al, 2018;Meseguer et al, 2022;Rull, 2011). Within this context, our working hypotheses for the NL are (1) the ancestor of the NL originated in SA during the Late Cretaceous (100.5-66 Ma) (FABI) before the intermittent connections between SA and NA got lost, ( 2 Herein, we aim to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Philonthina, with particular focus on the early evolution of its NL in time and space by using a molecular-based phylogeny for Staphylinini, focused on Philonthina and updated for its NL together with a fossilcalibrated phylogeny, and ancestral range reconstructions for the NL.…”

“…On the other hand, previous studies on the evolution of Philonthina in the NT seem to reflect diversification patterns related to palaeogeographical events that occurred during the Palaeogene and Neogene (Chani‐Posse, 2013; Chani‐Posse & Ramírez‐Salamanca, 2020). Such events include not only the Andean uplift since the Late Cretaceous (Boschman, 2021) but also intermittent connections between the Americas until the final closure of the isthmus of Panama 4.2–3.5 Ma (Jaramillo, 2019; Meseguer et al, 2022). The concomitant changes that brought those events into the landscape shaped the modern Neotropical biota, as it is shown by increasing evidence from other taxa (Antonelli & Sanmartín, 2011 ; Carneiro et al, 2018; Hoorn et al, 2010; Kattan et al, 2004).…”