Continuity of mammalian fauna over the last 200,000 y in the Indian subcontinent

Roberts, Patrick; Delson, Eric; Miracle, Preston; Ditchfield, Peter; Roberts, Richard G.; Jacobs, Zenobia; Blinkhorn, James; Ciochon, Russell L.; Fleagle, John G.; Frost, Stephen R.; Gilbert, Creighton; Gunnell, Gregg F.; Harrison, Terry; Korisettar, Ravi; Petraglia, Michael D.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1323465111

Cited by 52 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…As we are only analysing known species, we may underestimate the diversity loss in poorly sampled places, for example tropical Asia. We note, however, that a recent detailed study from India (one of the least sampled areas in tropical Asia) did not recover a single extinct species in their sampling from five time periods spanning the last 200,000 years (Roberts et al ., ). The small tropical Asian megafauna extinction is therefore likely real.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Historic and prehistoric human-driven extinctions have reshaped global mammal diversity patterns

2015

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Aim To assess the extent to which humans have reshaped Earth's biodiversity, by estimating natural ranges of all late Quaternary mammalian species, and to compare diversity patterns based on these with diversity patterns based on current distributions. Location Globally. Methods We estimated species, functional and phylogenetic diversity patterns based on natural ranges of all mammalian species (n = 5747 species) as they could have been today in the complete absence of human influence through time. Following this, we compared macroecological analyses of current and natural diversity patterns to assess whether human‐induced range changes bias evolutionary and ecological analyses based on current diversity patterns. Results We find that current diversity patterns have been drastically modified by humans, mostly due to global extinctions and regional to local extirpations. Current and natural diversities exhibit marked deviations virtually everywhere outside sub‐Saharan Africa. These differences are strongest for terrestrial megafauna, but also important for all mammals combined. The human‐induced changes led to biases in estimates of environmental diversity drivers, especially for terrestrial megafauna, but also for all mammals combined. Main conclusions Our results show that fundamental diversity patterns have been reshaped by human‐driven extinctions and extirpations, highlighting humans as a major force in the Earth system. We thereby emphasize that estimating natural distributions and diversities is important to improve our understanding of the evolutionary and ecological drivers of diversity as well as for providing a benchmark for conservation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Historic and prehistoric human-driven extinctions have reshaped global mammal diversity patterns

2015

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“…The Sagileru Valley also presents the potential to assess how animal populations in the Eastern Ghats responded to the youngest eruption of Toba, testing whether mammals survived the effects of the super-eruption as observed in the case of the nearby Billasurgam caves (Roberts et al, 2014). At the broadest level, tephra localities in India repeatedly occur in depositional contexts that permit research into palaeoenvironmental responses, changing faunal guilds and variation in hominin behaviour during the Late Pleistocene.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of Youngest Toba Tuff localities in the Sagileru Valley, south India, in association with Palaeolithic industries

Blinkhorn

Smith

Achyuthan

et al. 2014

Quaternary Science Reviews

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“…In fact, the heterogeneous habitat modification due to human settlement may have facilitated the expansion of P. medius as this species favours fragmented forests for roosting sites (Hahn et al, ). Fossil records from India and Sri Lanka also support the hypothesis that long‐term persistence of the South Asian mammalian fauna during the Late Pleistocene was facilitated by stable, interconnected mosaic habitats (Perera et al, ; Roberts et al, ). The recent (around 3.5 kya) P. medius population dip suggested by the EBSP may be correlated with rapid human population growth in the Indian subcontinent during the last 10,000 years (Schiffels & Durbin, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Population genetics of fruit bat reservoir informs the dynamics, distribution and diversity of Nipah virus

et al. 2019

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The structure and connectivity of wildlife host populations may influence zoonotic disease dynamics, evolution and therefore spillover risk to people. Fruit bats in the genus Pteropus, or flying foxes, are the primary natural reservoir for henipaviruses—a group of emerging paramyxoviruses that threaten livestock and public health. In Bangladesh, Pteropus medius is the reservoir for Nipah virus—and viral spillover has led to human fatalities nearly every year since 2001. Here, we use mitochondrial DNA and nuclear microsatellite markers to measure the population structure, demographic history and phylogeography of P. medius in Bangladesh. We combine this with a phylogeographic analysis of all known Nipah virus sequences and strains currently available to better inform the dynamics, distribution and evolutionary history of Nipah virus. We show that P. medius is primarily panmictic, but combined analysis of microsatellite and morphological data shows evidence for differentiation of two populations in eastern Bangladesh, corresponding to a divergent strain of Nipah virus also found in bats from eastern Bangladesh. Our demographic analyses indicate that a large, expanding population of flying foxes has existed in Bangladesh since the Late Pleistocene, coinciding with human population expansion in South Asia, suggesting repeated historical spillover of Nipah virus likely occurred. We present the first evidence of mitochondrial introgression, or hybridization, between P. medius and flying fox species found in South‐East Asia (P. vampyrus and P. hypomelanus), which may help to explain the distribution of Nipah virus strains across the region.

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Continuity of mammalian fauna over the last 200,000 y in the Indian subcontinent

Cited by 52 publications

References 37 publications

Historic and prehistoric human-driven extinctions have reshaped global mammal diversity patterns

Historic and prehistoric human-driven extinctions have reshaped global mammal diversity patterns

Discovery of Youngest Toba Tuff localities in the Sagileru Valley, south India, in association with Palaeolithic industries

Population genetics of fruit bat reservoir informs the dynamics, distribution and diversity of Nipah virus

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