Past aridity and dust drove biodiversity crises and altered pollination in the ancient gymnosperm Ephedra (Gnetales).

ABSTRACT: The long-term effects of present-day climate change on pollination are unquantified. However, distinguishing climatic drivers of ancient changes in pollination could provide valuable insights into biotic responses to near-future climate states. Herein, we show that pollination in a group of gymnosperm shrubs (Ephedra L., Gnetales) was irrevocably altered by the Cenozoic expansion of drylands on two different continents. In Asia, increased continentality during the mid-Eocene drove aridification and strong, dust-carrying storms that promoted a shift to prevailing wind pollination in the core clade of Ephedra. Surface uplift in the North American interior together with global cooling caused the expansion of aeolian deposition and placed similar evolutionary pressures on ephedras there, begin

SUBMITTER: Barbolini N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12227791 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature