Fast diversification through a mosaic of evolutionary histories characterizes the endemic flora of ancient Neotropical mountains

Mountains are among the most biodiverse areas on the globe. In young mountain ranges, exceptional plant species richness is often associated with recent and rapid radiations linked to the mountain uplift itself. In ancient mountains, however, orogeny vastly precedes the evolution of vascular plants,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2020-03, Vol.287 (1923), p.20192933-20192933
Main Authors: Vasconcelos, Thais N C, Alcantara, Suzana, Andrino, Caroline O, Forest, Félix, Reginato, Marcelo, Simon, Marcelo F, Pirani, José R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altitude
Biodiversity
Biological Evolution
Ecosystem
Evolution
Phylogeny
Plants - classification
South America
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Mountains are among the most biodiverse areas on the globe. In young mountain ranges, exceptional plant species richness is often associated with recent and rapid radiations linked to the mountain uplift itself. In ancient mountains, however, orogeny vastly precedes the evolution of vascular plants, so species richness has been explained by species accumulation during long periods of low extinction rates. Here we evaluate these assumptions by analysing plant diversification dynamics in the , an ecosystem associated with pre-Cambrian mountaintops and highlands of eastern South America, areas where plant species richness and endemism are among the highest in the world. Analyses of 15 angiosperm clades show that radiations of endemics exhibit fastest rates of diversification during the last 5 Myr, a climatically unstable period. However, results from ancestral range estimations using different models disagree on the age of the earliest speciation events and point to a complex floristic assembly. There is a general trend for higher diversification rates associated with these areas, but endemism may also increase or reduce extinction rates, depending on the group. Montane habitats, regardless of their geological age, may lead to boosts in speciation rates by accelerating population isolation in archipelago-like systems, circumstances that can also result in higher extinction rates and fast species turnover, misleading the age estimates of endemic lineages.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2019.2933