Aridification as a driver of biodiversity: a case study for the cycad genus Dioon (Zamiaceae).

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Aridification is considered a selective pressure that might have influenced plant diversification. It is suggested that plants adapted to aridity diversified during the Miocene, an epoch of global aridification (≈15 million years ago). However, evidence supporting diversification being a direct response to aridity is scarce, and multidisciplinary evidence, besides just phylogenetic estimations, is necessary to support the idea that aridification has driven diversification. The cycad genus Dioon (Zamiaceae), a tropical group including species occurring from humid forests to arid zones, was investigated as a promising study system to understand the associations among habitat shifts, diversification times, the evolution of leaf epidermal adaptations, and aridificat

SUBMITTER: Said Gutierrez-Ortega J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5786249 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature