Recent and local diversification of Central American understorey palms

Abstract

Aim: Central America is largely covered by hyperdiverse, yet poorly understood, rain forests. Understorey palms are diverse components of these forests, but little is known about their historical assembly. It is not clear when palms in Central America reached present diversity levels and whether most species arrived from neighbouring regions or evolved locally. We addressed these questions using the most species-rich American palm clades indicative of rain forests. We reconstructed and compared their phylogenomic and biogeographical history with the diversification of 54 other plant lineages, to gain a better understanding of the processes that shaped the assembly of Central American rain forests.Location: Central America.

The Origin And Speciation Of Orchids

“…These lineages span diverse habitats, from lowland dry and wet forests, (Burger, 1980;Kapelle, 2016). These findings support and expand the hypothesis of Central American tropical forests having evolved rapidly and recently (Cano et al, 2022). Nevertheless, although our analyses of geographical speciation rates offer new perspectives on the evolution of orchid diversity, we urge caution in interpreting the relationship between λ and species richness (Tietje et al, 2021).…”

“…Additionally, the geographic position of Costa Rica and Panama acts as a biological crossroads between the two biodiversity hotspots of northern Mesoamerica and the northern Andes, resulting in the current coexistence of northern and southern lineages (Burger, 1980;Kapelle, 2016). These findings support and expand the hypothesis of Central American tropical forests having evolved rapidly and recently (Cano et al, 2022). Nevertheless, although our analyses of geographical speciation rates offer new perspectives on the evolution of orchid diversity, we urge caution in interpreting the relationship between λ and species richness (Tietje et al, 2021).…”

The origin and speciation of orchids

“…Additionally, the geographic position of Costa Rica and Panama acts as a biological crossroads between the two biodiversity hotspots of northern Mesoamerica and the northern Andes, resulting in the current coexistence of northern and southern groups (Burger, 1980; Kapelle, 2016). These findings support and expand the hypothesis of Central American tropical forests having evolved rapidly and recently (Cano et al ., 2022). Nevertheless, although our analyses of geographical speciation rates offer new perspectives on the evolution of orchid diversity, we urge caution in interpreting the relationship between λ and species richness (Tietje et al ., 2022).…”

Phenological patterns from two sympatric subspecies of the palm Geonoma cuneata (H. Wendl. ex Spruce) and their gall inductor Contarinia geonomae (Gagné)

“…Arecaceae, with approximately 2600 species, is one of the most diverse monocot families (Christenhusz & Byng, 2016) and one of the most abundant groups in Neotropical humid forests (Staggemeier et al, 2017;Muscarella et al, 2020). In these areas, several canopy species have been classified as hyperdominant (ter Steege et al, 2013), whereas some lineages of the subfamily Arecoidae are particularly diverse and dominant in the understory (Cano et al, 2022). These hyperdiverse genera are often formed by highly related or poorly defined complexes of sympatric subspecies (Roncal et al, 2012;Bacon et al, 2022).…”