INVESTIGADORES
EZCURRA Martin Daniel
artículos
Título:
A New Global Palaeobiogeographical Model for the Late Mesozoic and Early Tertiary
Autor/es:
EZCURRA, M.D.; AGNOLIN, F.L.
Revista:
SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGY
Editorial:
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
Referencias:
Lugar: Oxford; Año: 2012 vol. 61
ISSN:
1063-5157
Resumen:
Late Mesozoic palaeobiogeography has been characterized by a distinction between the northern territories of
Laurasia and the southern landmasses of Gondwana. The repeated discovery of Gondwanan lineages in Laurasia has led
to the proposal of alternative scenarios to explain these anomalous occurrences. A new biogeographical model for late
Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems is here proposed in which Europe and ?Gondwanan? territories possessed a common
Eurogondwanan fauna during the earliest Cretaceous. Subsequently, following the Hauterivian, the European territories
severed from Africa and then connected to Asiamerica resulting in a faunal interchange. This model explains the presence of
Gondwanan taxa in Laurasia and the absence of Laurasian forms in the southern territories during the Cretaceous. In order
to test this new palaeobiogeographical model, tree reconciliation analyses (TRAs) were performed based on biogeographical
signals provided by a supertree of late Mesozoic archosaurs. The TRAs found significant evidence for the presence of
an earliest Cretaceous Eurogondwanan fauna followed by a relatively short-term Gondwana?Laurasia dichotomy. The
analysis recovered evidence for a biogeographical reconnection of the European territories with Africa and South America?
Antarctica during the Campanian to Maastrichtian time-slice. This biogeographical scenario appears to continue through
the early Tertiary and sheds light on the trans-Atlantic disjunct distributions of several extant plant and animal groups.
[Archosauria; Atlantogea; Cretaceous; Eurogondwana; palaeobiogeography; Tertiary.]