Non congruent fossil and phylogenetic evidence on the evolution of the climatic niche in the gondwana genus Nothofagus

HINOJOSA F.; GAXIOLA A.; PÉREZ M.F.; QUATTROCCHIO, M.E.

JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2015

0305-0270

ABSTRACTAim We used fossil and phylogenetic evidence to reconstruct climatic niche evolution in Nothofagus, a Gondwana genus distributed in tropical and temperate latitudes. To assess whether the modern distribution of the genus can be explained by the tropical conservatism hypothesis, we tested three predictions:(1) species from all Nothofagus subgenera coexisted under mesothermal climates during the early Eocene; (2) tolerance to microthermal climates evolved during the Eocene?Oligocene cooling from an ancestor that grew under mesothermal conditions; and (3) the climatic niche in Nothofagus is phylogenetically conserved.KeywordsEocene, Gondwana, into the tropics, niche modelling, Nothofagaceae, palaeoclimate,phylogenetic signal, tropical conservatism hypothesis.