Exploring the role of climatic niche changes in the evolution of the southern South American genus Baripus (Coleoptera: Carabidae): optimization of non‐hereditary climatic variables and phylogenetic signal measurement

AGRAIN, FEDERICO A.; DOMÍNGUEZ, CECILIA M.; CARRARA, RODOLFO; GRIOTTI, MARIANA; ROIG?JUÑENT, SERGIO A.

CLADISTICS (PRINT)

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2021 vol. 37 p. 816 - 828

0748-3007

Baripus is a ground beetle genus endemic to Southern South America, currently distributed across grassland and shrub habitats in mountain and lowland regions. The species of this genus are known to have been affected by the Andes orogeny and the climate changes produced during its uplift. In this work, we seek to understand how the orogeny of the Andes might has led to changes in species climatic niches over evolutionary time. In an attempt to integrates former ecological and historical biogeographic hypotheses, we explored the use of parsimony optimization of phylogenetically structured climate variables and ancestral state reconstruction methods. Then, we performed regression analyses of the climatic niche variables across different lineages. We were able to infer significant climatic niche constraints, and niche shifts that provide new insights to the existing knowledge, supporting former ecological and biogeographic hypotheses for this genus. Such trends in climatic nice fit well with the rain shadow effect caused by the uplift of the Cordillera de los Andes, as well as with other climate shifts associated with temperature and precipitation swings that occurred from the Middle Miocene to the Pliocene.