Museums and cradles of diversity are geographically coincident for narrowly distributed Neotropical snakes

Abstract

Factors driving the spatial configuration of centres of endemism have long been a topic of broad interest and debate. Due to different eco-evolutionary processes, these highly biodiverse areas may harbour different amounts of ancient and recently diverged organisms (paleo-and neo-endemism, respectively). Patterns of endemism still need to be measured at distinct phylogenetic levels for most clades and, consequently, little is known about the distribution, the age and the causes of such patterns. Here we tested for the presence of centres with high phylogenetic endemism (PE) in the highly diverse Neotropical snakes, testing the age of these patterns (paleo-or neoendemism), and the presence of PE centres with distinct phylogenetic composition. We then tested whether PE is predicted by topography, by climate (seasonality, stability, buffering and relictualness), or biome size. We found that most areas of high PE for Neotropical snakes present a combination of both ancient and recently diverged diversity, which is distributed mostly in the Caribbean region, Central America, the Andes, the Atlantic Forest and on scattered highlands in central Brazil. Turnover of lineages is higher across Central America, resulting in more phylogenetically distinct PE centres compared to South America, which presents a more phylogenetically uniform snake Research * equally contributed. 329fauna. Finally, we found that elevational range (topographic roughness) is the main predictor of PE, especially for paleoendemism, whereas low paleo-endemism levels coincide with areas of high climatic seasonality. Our study highlights the importance of mountain systems to both ancient and recent narrowly distributed diversity. Mountains are both museums and cradles of snake diversity in the Neotropics, which has important implications for conservation in this region.

Spatial Phylogenetics, Biogeographical Patterns and Conservation Implications of the Endemic Flora of Crete (Aegean, Greece) under Climate Change Scenarios

“…This could be the case in Crete, since SIE’s niche breadth displays a significant, though weak phylogenetic signal [ 45 ]. Our results lend weight to the suggestion that the interplay between topographical heterogeneity and climate may be linked with the configuration of centers of paleo- and neo-endemism on mountain massifs [ 125 ], a phenomenon also recorded in the Western and Central Mediterranean [ 107 , 126 ], as well as the Neotropics [ 121 ]. However, the low GR 2 for both phylogenetic endemism and relative phylogenetic endemism limits the scope of conclusions we could draw from these results, and so they should be regarded as informative rather than conclusive.…”

“…Climatic stability and high topographical/environmental heterogeneity may act in conjunction to provide the conditions needed for the simultaneous persistence of paleo-endemics and the diversification of neo-endemics [ 121 ]. In this context, altitude—a proxy of environmental heterogeneity [ 104 , 105 , 122 , 123 ]—emerged as the most important predictor of PE and RPE in Crete, followed by the mean diurnal range, pH and climate stability.…”

Management implications based on diversity patterns under climate change scenarios in a continental island biodiversity hotspot

“…This could be the case in Crete, since SIEc's niche breadth has a significant, though weak phylogenetic signal (Cmean = 0.11, p < 0.05). Our results lend weight to the suggestion that the interplay between topographical heterogeneity and climate may be linked with the configuration of centres of paleo-and neo-endemism on mountain massifs (Rangel et al, 2018), a phenomenon also recorded in the Neotropics (Azevedo et al, 2019). However, the low GR 2 for both RE and RPE limits the scope of conclusions we can draw from these results, and so they should be regarded as informative rather than conclusive.…”

“…Climatic stability and high topographical/environmental heterogeneity may act in conjunction to provide the conditions needed for the simultaneous persistence of paleoendemics and the diversification of neo-endemics (e.g., Azevedo et al, 2019). In this context, altitudea proxy of environmental heterogeneity (e.g., Cabral et al, 2014) emerged as the most important predictor of PE and RPE in Crete, followed by MDR, pH and CS.…”

Spatial patterns of phylogenetic diversity and endemism in the Western Ghats, India: a case study using ancient predatory arthropods

“…Further, the geographical distribution of a species along with phylogenetic divergence can be incorporated for all taxa in a given region through phylogenetic endemism (PE), a metric that weights the branch lengths of each lineage by its respective geographic range (Rosauer et al, 2009). The use of PD and PE allows us to assess the roles of ecological, historical and evolutionary processes that structure communities, and their usefulness has been demonstrated in multiple biodiverse and complex landscapes (Azevedo et al, 2020;Fenker et al, 2020;Mishler et al, 2014), but remains limited in the Asian tropical forests where only PD has been assessed (Bose et al, 2019;Divya, Ramesh & Karanth., 2020;Tamma & Ramakrishnan, 2015).…”