Historical climate change and speciation: neotropical seasonally dry forest plants show patterns of both tertiary and quaternary diversification.
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Historical climate changes have had a major effect on the distribution and evolution of plant species in the neotropics. What is more controversial is whether relatively recent Pleistocene climatic changes have driven speciation, or whether neotropical species diversity is more ancient. This question is addressed using evolutionary rate analysis of sequence data of nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacers in diverse taxa occupying neotropical seasonally dry forests, including Ruprechtia (Polygonaceae), robinioid legumes (Fabaceae), Chaetocalyx and Nissolia (Fabaceae), and Loxopterygium (Anacardiaceae). Species diversifications in these taxa occurred both during and before the Pleistocene in Central America, but were primarily pre-Pleistocene in South America. This indicates plausibility both for models that predict tropical species diversity to be recent and that invoke a role for Pleistocene climatic change, and those that consider it ancient and implicate geological factors such as the Andean orogeny and the closure of the Panama Isthmus. Cladistic vicariance analysis was attempted to identify common factors underlying evolution in these groups. In spite of the similar Mid-Miocene to Pliocene ages of the study taxa, and their high degree of endemism in the different fragments of South American dry forests, the analysis yielded equivocal, non-robust patterns of area relationships. (+info)
The Spirit Rover's Athena science investigation at Gusev Crater, Mars.
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The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit and its Athena science payload have been used to investigate a landing site in Gusev crater. Gusev is hypothesized to be the site of a former lake, but no clear evidence for lacustrine sedimentation has been found to date. Instead, the dominant lithology is basalt, and the dominant geologic processes are impact events and eolian transport. Many rocks exhibit coatings and other characteristics that may be evidence for minor aqueous alteration. Any lacustrine sediments that may exist at this location within Gusev apparently have been buried by lavas that have undergone subsequent impact disruption. (+info)
New dinosaurs link southern landmasses in the Mid-Cretaceous.
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Abelisauroid predators have been recorded almost exclusively from South America, India and Madagascar, a distribution thought to document persistent land connections exclusive of Africa. Here, we report fossils from three stratigraphic levels in the Cretaceous of Niger that provide definitive evidence that abelisauroid dinosaurs and their immediate antecedents were also present on Africa. The fossils include an immediate abelisauroid antecedent of Early Cretaceous age (ca. 130-110 Myr ago), early members of the two abelisauroid subgroups (Noasauridae, Abelisauridae) of Mid-Cretaceous age (ca. 110 Myr ago) and a hornless abelisaurid skull of early Late Cretaceous age (ca. 95 Myr ago). Together, these fossils fill in the early history of the abelisauroid radiation and provide key evidence for continued faunal exchange among Gondwanan landmasses until the end of the Early Cretaceous (ca. 100 Myr ago). (+info)
Introduction and synthesis: Plant phylogeny and the origin of major biomes.
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Phylogenetic trees based upon DNA sequence data, when calibrated with a dimension of time, allow inference of: (i) the pattern of accumulation of lineages through time; (ii) the time of origin of monophyletic groups; (iii) when lineages arrived in different geographical areas; (iv) the time of origin of biome-specific morphologies. This gives a powerful new view of the history of biomes that in many cases is not provided by the incomplete plant fossil record. Dated plant phylogenies for angiosperm families such as Leguminoaceae (Fabaceae), Melastomataceae sensu stricto, Annonaceae and Rhamnaceae indicate that long-distance, transoceanic dispersal has played an important role in shaping their distributions, and that this can obscure any effect of tectonic history, previously assumed to have been the major cause of their biogeographic patterns. Dispersal from other continents has also been important in the assembly of the Amazonian rainforest flora and the Australian flora. Comparison of dated biogeographic patterns of plants and animals suggests that recent long-distance dispersal might be more prevalent in plants, which has major implications for community assembly and coevolution. Dated plant phylogenies also reveal the role of past environmental changes on the evolution of lineages in species-rich biomes, and show that recent Plio-Pleistocene diversification has contributed substantially to their current species richness. Because of the critical role of fossils and morphological characters in assigning ages to nodes in phylogenetic trees, future studies must include careful morphological consideration of fossils and their extant relatives in a phylogenetic context. Ideal study systems will be based upon DNA sequence data from multiple loci and multiple fossil calibrations. This allows cross-validation both of age estimates from different loci, and from different fossil calibrations. For a more complete view of biome history, future studies should emphasize full taxon sampling in ecologically important groups, and should focus on geographical areas for which few species-level phylogenies are available, such as tropical Africa and Asia. These studies are urgent because understanding the history of biomes can both inform conservation decisions, and help predict the effects of future environmental changes at a time when biodiversity is being impacted on an unprecedented scale. (+info)
The role of immigrants in the assembly of the South American rainforest tree flora.
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The Amazon lowland rainforest flora is conventionally viewed as comprising lineages that evolved in biogeographic isolation after the split of west Gondwana (ca. 100 Myr ago). Recent molecular phylogenies, however, identify immigrant lineages that arrived in South America during its period of oceanic isolation (ca. 100-3 Myr ago). Long-distance sweepstakes dispersal across oceans played an important and possibly predominant role. Stepping-stone migration from Africa and North America through hypothesized Late Cretaceous and Tertiary island chains may have facilitated immigration. An analysis of inventory plot data suggests that immigrant lineages comprise ca. 20% of both the species and individuals of an Amazon tree community in Ecuador. This is more than an order of magnitude higher than previous estimates. We also present data on the community-level similarity between South American and palaeotropical rainforests, and suggest that most taxonomic similarity derives from trans-oceanic dispersal, rather than a shared Gondwanan history. (+info)
Partial island submergence and speciation in an adaptive radiation: a multilocus analysis of the Cuban green anoles.
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Sympatric speciation is often proposed to account for species-rich adaptive radiations within lakes or islands, where barriers to gene flow or dispersal may be lacking. However, allopatric speciation may also occur in such situations, especially when ranges are fragmented by fluctuating water levels. We test the hypothesis that Miocene fragmentation of Cuba into three palaeo-archipelagos accompanied species-level divergence in the adaptive radiation of West Indian Anolis lizards. Analysis of morphology, mitochondrial DNA (mt DNA) and nuclear DNA in the Cuban green anoles (carolinensis subgroup) strongly supports three pre dictions made by this hypothesis. First, three geographical sets of populations, whose ranges correspond with palaeo-archipelago boundaries, are distinct and warrant recognition as independent evolutionary lineages or species. Coalescence of nuclear sequence fragments sampled from these species and the large divergences observed between their mtDNA haplotypes suggest separation prior to the subsequent unification of Cuba ca. 5 Myr ago. Second, molecular phylogenetic relationships among these species reflect historical geographical relationships rather than morphological similarity. Third, all three species remain distinct despite extensive geographical contact subsequent to island unification, occasional hybridization and introgression of mtDNA haplotypes. Allopatric speciation initiated during partial island submergence may play an important role in speciation during the adaptive radiation of Anolis lizards. (+info)
Haemolymph [Na+] and [Cl-] loss in Gammarus fossarum exposed in situ to a wide range of acidic streams.
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The acid-sensitive amphipod Gammarus fossarum was exposed in situ for 24, 96 and 168 h to 18 streams (9 draining from granite and 9 draining from sandstone bedrock), selected in order to provide a wide range of acidification. After 24 h, exposure to slightly acidic (6.00 < or = pH < or = 5.50) and strongly acidic water (pH < 5.50) led to a severe and significant depletion in haemolymph [Na+] and [Cl-] compared to organisms exposed in circumneutral water. Highly significant linear correlations between stream mean pH value and haemolymph [Na+] and [Cl-] were observed for each exposure time on each bedrock. Organisms exposed to slightly acid streams draining granite bedrock (pH = 5.71, pH = 5.81) showed a physiological adaptation after 96 h of exposure, while animals in acidic sandstone streams did not. Results of this study indicate that haemolymph [Na+] and [Cl-] in G. fossarum could be an effective ecophysiological marker for monitoring freshwater ecosystem acidification. (+info)
The role of latitude in mobilism debates.
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In the early 1920s, the continental displacement theory of Wegener, latitude studies of Koppen and Wegener, and Argand's ideas on mountain building led to the first mobilistic paleogeography. In the 1930s and 1940s, many factors caused its general abandonment. Mobilism was revived in the 1950s and 1960s by measurements of long-term displacement of crustal blocks relative to each other (tectonic displacement) and to Earth's geographic pole (latitudinal displacement). Also, short-term or current displacements can now be measured. I briefly outline the categories of tectonic and current displacement and focus on latitudinal displacement. Integration of tectonic and latitudinal displacement in the early 1970s completed the new mobilistic paleogeography, in which the transformation of rock magnetization directions into paleopoles and latitudes and the finite rotation of spherical plates about pivot points play complementary roles; this new synthesis now provides a quantitative basis for studying long-term evolution of Earth's surface features and climate, the changing environments in which life evolves. (+info)