Biogeographic history of South American arid lands: A view from its arthropods using TASS analysis

ROIG-JUÑENT, S., M.C. DOMÍNGUEZ, G.E. FLORES & C. MATTONI.

JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS

Academic Press

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2006 vol. 66 p. 404 - 420

0140-1963

Arid and semi-arid ecosystems in South America include several different habitats, such as thePeruvian and Atacama Deserts of the Pacific Coast, Monte Desert of central Argentina, Patagoniansteppes, Chaco xeric woodlands, Andean Puna, and Brazilian Cerrado and Caatinga. All these areasbelong to two biotic tracks, one stretching from Patagonia to the Peruvian coastal desert province, atapproximately 51 South latitude in the Pacific coast of Peru and the second stretching on the coasts ofthe Atlantic ocean, from northern Patagonia to Caatinga. Twenty-one natural areas have beenrecognized and seventeen taxa of Arthropoda were analysed applying paralogy-free subtrees, usingthe TASS program. The obtained data matrix was analysed using NONA and TNT programs. Thestrict consensus tree shows that the first areas to become separate from the rest were Caatinga,septentrional deserts of Chile and Peru, the Uspallata-Calingasta Valley, and the natural areas fromthe western and eastern slopes of the Andes. The vicariant event most clearly correlated with thecladogram is the uplifting of the Andes mountain chain, which attained 3000m in the Quechuaphase, between 14?11Ma in the middle Miocene. This event split, until present time, the taxa intooccidental groups (from the central area of Chile) and oriental groups (from Argentina), and alsogenerated the natural areas of Puna. The general area cladogram shows that Monte and Puna are not areas that were isolated from the rest and evolved separately, because the considered sub-areas are linked to other biogeographical provinces. The five areas that form Patagonia are all related.