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Landscape properties have a profound influence on the diversity and distribution of biota, with present-day bio- diversity hot spots occurring in topographically complex regions globally. Complex topography is created by tec- tonic processes and further shaped by interactions between climate and land-surface processes. These processes enrich diversity at the regional scale by promoting speciation and accommodating increased species richness along strong environmental gradients. Synthesis of the mammalian fossil record and a geophysical model of topographic evolution of the Basin and Range Province in western North America enable us to directly quantify relationships between mammal diversity and landscape dynamics over the past 30 million years. We analyze the covariation between tectonic history (extensional strain rates, paleotopography, and ruggedness), global temperature, and diversity dynamics. Mammal species richness and turnover exhibit stronger responses to rates of change in land- scape properties than to the specific properties themselves, with peaks in diversity coinciding with high tectonic strain rates and large changes in elevation across spatial scales. 

Tectonic processes drive the evolution of basins through local and regional changes in topographic relief, which have long-term effects on mammalian richness and distri- bution. Mammals respond to the resulting changes in landscape and climate through evolution, shifts in geographic range, and by altering their community composition. Here, we evaluate the relationship between tectonic episodes and the diversification his- tory of fossil mammals in the Miocene Dove Spring Formation (12.5–8.5 Ma) of southern California, USA. This formation contains a rich fossil record of mammals and other ver- tebrates as well as structural and sedimento- logical evidence for tectonic episodes of basin extension, rotation, and translation. We used several methods to compare the fossil record to the tectonic history of the Dove Spring Formation. We updated the formation’s geochronology to incorporate current radiometric dating standards and measured additional stratigraphic sections to refine the temporal resolution of large mammal (>1 kg) fossil localities to 200-kyr (or shorter) intervals. Observed species rich- ness over time follows the same trend as the number of localities and specimens, suggest- ing that richness reflects sampling intensity. Estimates of stratigraphic ranges with 80% confidence intervals were used to conduct per capita diversification analysis and a like- lihood approach to changes in faunal com- position from one time interval to the next. While edge effects influence time bins at the beginning and end of the study interval, we found changes in diversification rates and faunal composition that are not solely linked to preservation. Several rare species appear at 10.5 Ma and persist through the top of the formation despite variable preserva- tion rates. Changes in faunal composition at 12.1 Ma and 10.5 Ma are not associated with elevated preservation rates, which indicates that some faunal changes are not primarily driven by sampling effort. The lower por- tion of the formation is characterized by high origination rates and long residence times. The upper portion has high per capita ex- tinction rates that increased in magnitude as basin rotation and translation progressed from 10.5 Ma. The greatest change in faunal composition coincided with basin rotation and translation that interrupted a long-run- ning extensional period. Tectonics played key roles in the diversity of mammals by deter- mining fossil productivity and shaping the landscapes that they inhabited. 

The Barstow Formation in the Mojave region of California was deposited in an extensional-basin setting of the Basin and Range province and preserves diverse middle Miocene mammalian assemblages. Six facies associations represent the dominant depositional environments in the basin, which changed through time from alluvial-fan and playa-dominated settings to floodplains and spring-fed wetlands. The majority of fossil localities and specimens occur in later-forming facies associations. We analyzed the taphonomic characteristics of fossil assemblages to test whether basin-scale facies associations or locality-scale facies exert more control on the preservational features of mammalian assemblages through the formation. We documented the facies settings of 47 vertebrate localities in the field in order to interpret depositional setting and the mode of accumulation for fossil assemblages. We evaluated skeletal material in museum collections for taphonomic indicators, including weathering stage, original bone-damage patterns, hydraulic equivalence, and skeletal-element composition. We evaluated four alternative modes of accumulation, including attritional accumulation on the land surface, accumulation by fluvial processes, carnivore or scavenger accumulations, and mass-death events. The majority of localities represent attritional accumulations at sites of long-term mortality in channel-margin, abandoned-channel, poorly drained floodplain, and ephemeral-wetland settings. Skeletal-element composition and taphonomic characteristics varied among facies, indicating an important role for depositional setting and landscape position on fossil-assemblage preservation. We find that locality-scale facies have a greater influence on the taphonomic characteristics of fossil assemblages; the taphonomy of each facies association is influenced by the facies that compose it. The facies composition and distribution within facies associations change through the formation, with a greater variety of depositional settings forming later in the history of the basin. Heterogeneous landscapes present more settings for fossil accumulation, contributing to the increase in fossil occurrence through the depositional history of the formation.