Phylogenetic evidence suggests that platyrrhine (or New World) monkeys and caviomorph rodents of the Western Hemisphere derive from source groups from the Eocene of Afro-Arabia, a landmass that was ~1500 to 2000 kilometers east of South America during the late Paleogene. Here, we report evidence for a third mammalian lineage of African origin in the Paleogene of South America—a newly discovered genus and species of parapithecid anthropoid primate from Santa Rosa in Amazonian Perú. Bayesian clock–based phylogenetic analysis nests this genus (
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10143806
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Science
- Volume:
- 368
- Issue:
- 6487
- ISSN:
- 0036-8075
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 194-197
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Nyssa (Nyssaceae, Cornales) represents a classical example of the well‐known eastern Asian–eastern North American floristic disjunction. The genus consists of three species in eastern Asia, four species in eastern North America, and one species in Central America. Species of the genus are ecologically important trees in eastern North American and eastern Asian forests. The distribution of living species and a rich fossil record of the genus make it an excellent model for understanding the origin and evolution of the eastern Asian–eastern North American floristic disjunction. However, despite the small number of species, relationships within the genus have remained unclear and have not been elucidated using a molecular approach. Here, we integrate data from 48 nuclear genes, fossils, morphology, and ecological niche to resolve species relationships, elucidate its biogeographical history, and investigate the evolution of morphology and ecological niches, aiming at a better understanding of the well‐known EA–ENA floristic disjunction. Results showed that the Central American (CAM)Nyssa talamancana was sister to the remaining species, which were divided among three, rapidly diversified subclades. Estimated divergence times and biogeographical history suggested thatNyssa had an ancestral range in Eurasia and western North America in the late Paleocene. The rapid diversification occurred in the early Eocene, followed by multiple dispersals between and within the Erasian and North American continents. The genus experienced two major episodes of extinction in the early Oligocene and end of Neogene, respectively. The Central AmericanN. talamancana represents a relic lineage of the boreotropical flora in the Paleocene/Eocene boundary that once diversified in western North America. The results supported the importance of both the North Atlantic land bridge and the Bering land bridge (BLB) for the Paleogene dispersals ofNyssa and the Neogene dispersals, respectively, as well as the role of Central America as refugia of the Paleogene flora. The total‐evidence‐based dated phylogeny suggested that the pattern of macroevolution ofNyssa coincided with paleoclimatic changes. We found a number of evolutionary changes in morphology (including wood anatomy and leaf traits) and ecological niches (precipitation and temperature) between the EA–ENA disjunct, supporting the ecological selection driving trait evolutions after geographic isolation. We also demonstrated challenges in phylogenomic studies of lineages with rapid diversification histories. The concatenation of gene data can lead to inference of strongly supported relationships incongruent with the species tree. However, conflicts in gene genealogies did not seem to impose a strong effect on divergence time dating in our case. Furthermore, we demonstrated that rapid diversification events may not be recovered in the divergence time dating analysis using BEAST if critical fossil constraints of the relevant nodes are not available. Our study provides an example of complex bidirectional exchanges of plants between Eurasia and North America in the Paleogene, but “out of Asia” migrations in the Neogene, to explain the present disjunct distribution ofNyssa in EA and ENA. -
Hyaenodonta is a diverse, extinct group of carnivorous mammals that included weasel- to rhinoceros-sized species. The oldest-known hyaenodont fossils are from the middle Paleocene of North Africa and the antiquity of the group in Afro-Arabia led to the hypothesis that it originated there and dispersed to Asia, Europe, and North America. Here we describe two new hyaenodont species based on the oldest hyaenodont cranial specimens known from Afro-Arabia. The material was collected from the latest Eocene Locality 41 (L-41, ∼34 Ma) in the Fayum Depression, Egypt.
Akhnatenavus nefertiticyon sp. nov. has specialized, hypercarnivorous molars and an elongate cranial vault. InA. nefertiticyon the tallest, piercing cusp on M1–M2is the paracone.Brychotherium ephalmos gen. et sp. nov. has more generalized molars that retain the metacone and complex talonids. InB. ephalmos the tallest, piercing cusp on M1–M2is the metacone. We incorporate this new material into a series of phylogenetic analyses using a character-taxon matrix that includes novel dental, cranial, and postcranial characters, and samples extensively from the global record of the group. The phylogenetic analysis includes the first application of Bayesian methods to hyaenodont relationships.B. ephalmos is consistently placed within Teratodontinae, an Afro-Arabian clade with several generalist and hypercarnivorous forms, andAkhnatenavus is consistently recovered in Hyainailourinae as part of an Afro-Arabian radiation. The phylogenetic results suggest that hypercarnivory evolved independently three times within Hyaenodonta: in Teratodontinae, in Hyainailourinae, and in Hyaenodontinae. Teratodontines are consistently placed in a close relationship with Hyainailouridae (Hyainailourinae + Apterodontinae) to the exclusion of “proviverrines,” hyaenodontines, and several North American clades, and we propose that the superfamily Hyainailouroidea be used to describe this relationship. Using the topologies recovered from each phylogenetic method, we reconstructed the biogeographic history of Hyaenodonta using parsimony optimization (PO), likelihood optimization (LO), and Bayesian Binary Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to examine support for the Afro-Arabian origin of Hyaenodonta. Across all analyses, we found that Hyaenodonta most likely originated in Europe, rather than Afro-Arabia. The clade is estimated by tip-dating analysis to have undergone a rapid radiation in the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene; a radiation currently not documented by fossil evidence. During the Paleocene, lineages are reconstructed as dispersing to Asia, Afro-Arabia, and North America. The place of origin of Hyainailouroidea is likely Afro-Arabia according to the Bayesian topologies but it is ambiguous using parsimony. All topologies support the constituent clades–Hyainailourinae, Apterodontinae, and Teratodontinae–as Afro-Arabian and tip-dating estimates that each clade is established in Afro-Arabia by the middle Eocene. -
Abstract Aim Fossil data may be crucial to infer biogeographical history, especially in taxa with tropical trans‐Pacific distributions. Here, we use extinct and extant trochanteriid flattened spiders to test hypotheses that could explain its trans‐Pacific disjunct distribution, including a Boreotropical origin with a North Atlantic dispersal, an African origin with South Atlantic dispersal and an Eurasian origin with Bering Bridge route.
Location World‐wide.
Taxon Trochanteriidae,
Plator ‐Doliomalus ‐Vectius (PDV) clade.Methods MicroCT was used to collect morphological data from an undescribed Baltic amber fossil. These data were used with additional fossils and extant species in a total‐evidence, tip‐dated phylogenetic analysis. We tested different scenarios using constrained dispersal matrices in a Bayesian approach. An analysis with fossils pruned was also performed to explore how lack of fossil data might impact inferences of biogeographical process.
Results The phylogenetic analyses allowed us to place the new fossil in the genus
Plator . Analyses without fossils suggest an African origin with a dispersal to Asia from India and a South Atlantic dispersal to South America. When fossils are included, hypothesis‐testing rejects this scenario and equally supports a Boreotropical and an Afro‐European origin with a South Atlantic route and a dispersal to Asia from Europe.Main conclusions Biogeographical inferences of disjunctly distributed taxa should be interpreted with caution when fossils are not included. Although one alternative hypothesis was not completely rejected, results show that the Boreotropical hypothesis for the PDV clade could be a robust explanation for its actual distribution. This hypothesis is mostly overlooked in animal taxa and rigorous tests with other taxa with similar distributions may reveal that a Boreotropical origin is common. We discuss methodological approaches that could improve biogeographical tests using fossils as terminals.
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Amylascus is a genus of ectomycorrhizal truffles withinPezizaceae that is known from Australia and contains only two described species,A. herbertianus andA. tasmanicus . Species ofAmylascus are closely related to truffles (Pachyphlodes ,Luteoamylascus ) and cup fungi (Plicariella ) from the Northern Hemisphere. Here we reevaluate the species diversity ofAmylascus and related taxa from southern South America and Australia based on new morphological and molecular data. We identify previously undocumented diversity and morphological variability in ascospore color, ascospore ornamentation, hymenial construction, epithecium structure and the amyloid reaction of the ascus in Melzer’s reagent. We redescribe twoAmylascus species from Australia and describe seven newAmylascus species, five from South America and two from Australia. This is the first report ofAmylascus species from South America. We also describe the new South American genusNothoamylascus as sister lineage to thePachyphlodes -Amylascus -Luteoamylascus clade (includingAmylascus ,Luteoamylascus ,Pachyphlodes , andPlicariella ). We obtained ITS sequences of mitotic spore mats fromNothoamylascus erubescens gen. & sp. nov. and four of the seven newly describedAmylascus species, providing the first evidence of mitotic spore mats inAmylascus . Additional ITS sequences from mitotic spore mats reveal the presence of nine additional undescribedAmylascus and oneNothoamylascus species that do not correspond to any sampled ascomata. We also identify three additional undescribedAmylascus species based on environmental sequences from the feces of two ground-dwelling bird species from Chile,Scelorchilus rubecula andPteroptochos tarnii . Our results indicate that ascomata fromAmylascus andNothoamylascus species are rarely collected, but molecular data from ectomycorrhizal roots and mitotic spore mats indicate that these species are probably common and widespread in southern South America. Finally, we present a time-calibrated phylogeny that is consistent with a late Gondwanan distribution. The time since the most recent common ancestor of: 1) the familyPezizaceae had a mean of 276 Ma (217–337 HPD); 2) theAmylascus -Pachyphlodes -Nothoamylascus -Luteoamylascus clade had a mean of 79 Ma (60–100 HPD); and 3) theAmylascus -Pachyphlodes clade had a mean of 50 Ma (38–62 HPD). The crown age ofPachyphlodes had a mean of 39 Ma (25–42 HPD) andAmylascus had a mean age of 28 Ma (20–37 HPD), falling near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary and the onset of the Antarctic glaciation (c. 35 Ma). -
Premise Eocene floras of Patagonia document biotic response to the final separation of Gondwana. The conifer genus
Araucaria , distributed worldwide during the Mesozoic, has a disjunct extant distribution between South America and Australasia. Fossils assigned to AustralasianAraucaria Sect.Eutacta usually are represented by isolated organs, making diagnosis difficult.Araucaria pichileufensis E.W. Berry, from the middle Eocene Río Pichileufú (RP ) site in Argentine Patagonia, was originally placed in Sect.Eutacta and later reported from the early Eocene Laguna del Hunco (LH ) locality. However, the relationship ofA. pichileufensis to Sect.Eutacta and the conspecificity of theAraucaria material among these Patagonian floras have not been tested using modern methods.Methods We review the type material of
A. pichileufensis alongside large (n = 192) new fossil collections ofAraucaria fromLH andRP , including multi‐organ preservation of leafy branches, ovuliferous complexes, and pollen cones. We use a total evidence phylogenetic analysis to analyze relationships of the fossils to Sect.Eutacta .Results We describe
Araucaria huncoensis sp. nov. fromLH and improve the whole‐plant concept forAraucaria pichileufensis fromRP . The two species respectively resolve in the crown and stem of Sect.Eutacta .Conclusions Our results confirm the presence and indicate the survival of Sect.
Eutacta in South America during early Antarctic separation. The exceptionally complete fossils significantly predate several molecular age estimates for crownEutacta . The differentiation of twoAraucaria species demonstrates conifer turnover during climate change and initial South American isolation from the early to middle Eocene.