Rapid Pliocene adaptive radiation of modern kangaroos

Differentiating between ancient and younger, more rapidly evolved clades is important for determining paleoenvironmental drivers of diversification. Australia possesses many aridity-adapted lineages, the origins of which have been closely linked to late Miocene continental aridification. Using denta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2018-10, Vol.362 (6410), p.72-75
Main Authors: Couzens, Aidan M C, Prideaux, Gavin J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Adaptation, Biological
Adaptive radiation
Animals
Aridity
Australia
Biodiversity
Biological evolution
Cenozoic
Climate Change
Diet
Divergence
Extinct species
Fossils
Grasslands
Herbivores
Macropodidae
Macropodidae - anatomy & histology
Macropodidae - classification
Macropodidae - physiology
Mammals
Miocene
Molar - anatomy & histology
Niches
Oscillations
Phylogeny
Pleistocene
Pliocene
Radiation
Species extinction
Teeth
Terrestrial environments
Tooth Crown - anatomy & histology
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Summary:Differentiating between ancient and younger, more rapidly evolved clades is important for determining paleoenvironmental drivers of diversification. Australia possesses many aridity-adapted lineages, the origins of which have been closely linked to late Miocene continental aridification. Using dental macrowear and molar crown height measurements, spanning the past 25 million years, we show that the most iconic Australian terrestrial mammals, "true" kangaroos (Macropodini), adaptively radiated in response to mid-Pliocene grassland expansion rather than Miocene aridity. In contrast, low-crowned, short-faced kangaroos radiated into predominantly browsing niches as the late Cenozoic became more arid, contradicting the view that this was an interval of global browser decline. Our results implicate warm-to-cool climatic oscillations as a trigger for adaptive radiation and refute arguments attributing Pleistocene megafaunal extinction to aridity-forced dietary change.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aas8788