Evolutionary lag times and recent origin of the biota of an ancient desert (Atacama-Sechura).

ABSTRACT: The assembly of regional biotas and organismal responses to anthropogenic climate change both depend on the capacity of organisms to adapt to novel ecological conditions. Here we demonstrate the concept of evolutionary lag time, the time between when a climatic regime or habitat develops in a region and when it is colonized by a given clade. We analyzed the time of colonization of four clades (three plant genera and one lizard genus) into the Atacama-Sechura Desert of South America, one of Earth's driest and oldest deserts. We reconstructed time-calibrated phylogenies for each clade and analyzed the timing of shifts in climatic distributions and biogeography and compared these estimates to independent geological estimates of the time of origin of these deserts. Chaetanthera and Malesherbia

SUBMITTER: Guerrero PC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3710863 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature