Reconstructing the Pleistocene geography of the Aphelocoma jays (Corvidae)

Understanding historical distributions of species and evolving lineages has been a topic of considerable interest, yet methods used to date have not provided detailed, quantitative distributional hypotheses. Here, we present a technique based on models of species' ecological niches and Pleistoc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Diversity & distributions 2004-07, Vol.10 (4), p.237-246
Main Authors: Peterson, A. Townsend, Martínez-Meyer, Enrique, González-Salazar, Constantino
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aphelocoma
Biodiversity Research
Biological taxonomies
Climate change
Ecological modeling
Ecological niches
Evolution
Geography
Modeling
Paleoclimatology
Pleistocene distribution
potential distribution
Predictive modeling
speciation
Species
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Summary:Understanding historical distributions of species and evolving lineages has been a topic of considerable interest, yet methods used to date have not provided detailed, quantitative distributional hypotheses. Here, we present a technique based on models of species' ecological niches and Pleistocene climate reconstructions that provides such hypotheses, providing the example of reconstructions for the Aphelocoma jays. We demonstrate in general a greater degree than expected of stability in jay species' distributional areas back through at least the most recent glaciation event, and that existing patterns of genetic differentiation may date to before the Late Pleistocene glaciations. More generally, the method offers the potential for reconstructing historical distributions of species or lineages, and providing a detailed geographic framework for addressing many biogeographic and systematic questions.
ISSN:1366-9516
1472-4642
DOI:10.1111/j.1366-9516.2004.00097.x