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Dated Plant Phylogenies Resolve Neogene Climate and Landscape Evolution in the Cape Floristic Region

In the context of molecularly-dated phylogenies, inferences informed by ancestral habitat reconstruction can yield valuable insights into the origins of biomes, palaeoenvironments and landforms. In this paper, we use dated phylogenies of 12 plant clades from the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) in southe...

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Autores principales: Hoffmann, Vera, Verboom, G. Anthony, Cotterill, Fenton P. D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4589284/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26422465
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137847
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author Hoffmann, Vera
Verboom, G. Anthony
Cotterill, Fenton P. D.
author_facet Hoffmann, Vera
Verboom, G. Anthony
Cotterill, Fenton P. D.
author_sort Hoffmann, Vera
collection PubMed
description In the context of molecularly-dated phylogenies, inferences informed by ancestral habitat reconstruction can yield valuable insights into the origins of biomes, palaeoenvironments and landforms. In this paper, we use dated phylogenies of 12 plant clades from the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) in southern Africa to test hypotheses of Neogene climatic and geomorphic evolution. Our combined dataset for the CFR strengthens and refines previous palaeoenvironmental reconstructions based on a sparse, mostly offshore fossil record. Our reconstructions show remarkable consistency across all 12 clades with regard to both the types of environments identified as ancestral, and the timing of shifts to alternative conditions. They reveal that Early Miocene land surfaces of the CFR were wetter than at present and were dominated by quartzitic substrata. These conditions continue to characterize the higher-elevation settings of the Cape Fold Belt, where they have fostered the persistence of ancient fynbos lineages. The Middle Miocene (13–17 Ma) saw the development of perennial to weakly-seasonal arid conditions, with the strongly seasonal rainfall regime of the west coast arising ~6.5–8 Ma. Although the Late Miocene may have seen some exposure of the underlying shale substrata, the present-day substrate diversity of the CFR lowlands was shaped by Pliocene-Pleistocene events. Particularly important was renewed erosion, following the post-African II uplift episode, and the reworking of sediments on the coastal platform as a consequence of marine transgressions and tectonic uplift. These changes facilitated adaptive radiations in some, but not all, lineages studied.
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spelling pubmed-45892842015-10-02 Dated Plant Phylogenies Resolve Neogene Climate and Landscape Evolution in the Cape Floristic Region Hoffmann, Vera Verboom, G. Anthony Cotterill, Fenton P. D. PLoS One Research Article In the context of molecularly-dated phylogenies, inferences informed by ancestral habitat reconstruction can yield valuable insights into the origins of biomes, palaeoenvironments and landforms. In this paper, we use dated phylogenies of 12 plant clades from the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) in southern Africa to test hypotheses of Neogene climatic and geomorphic evolution. Our combined dataset for the CFR strengthens and refines previous palaeoenvironmental reconstructions based on a sparse, mostly offshore fossil record. Our reconstructions show remarkable consistency across all 12 clades with regard to both the types of environments identified as ancestral, and the timing of shifts to alternative conditions. They reveal that Early Miocene land surfaces of the CFR were wetter than at present and were dominated by quartzitic substrata. These conditions continue to characterize the higher-elevation settings of the Cape Fold Belt, where they have fostered the persistence of ancient fynbos lineages. The Middle Miocene (13–17 Ma) saw the development of perennial to weakly-seasonal arid conditions, with the strongly seasonal rainfall regime of the west coast arising ~6.5–8 Ma. Although the Late Miocene may have seen some exposure of the underlying shale substrata, the present-day substrate diversity of the CFR lowlands was shaped by Pliocene-Pleistocene events. Particularly important was renewed erosion, following the post-African II uplift episode, and the reworking of sediments on the coastal platform as a consequence of marine transgressions and tectonic uplift. These changes facilitated adaptive radiations in some, but not all, lineages studied. Public Library of Science 2015-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC4589284/ /pubmed/26422465 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137847 Text en © 2015 Hoffmann et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hoffmann, Vera
Verboom, G. Anthony
Cotterill, Fenton P. D.
Dated Plant Phylogenies Resolve Neogene Climate and Landscape Evolution in the Cape Floristic Region
title Dated Plant Phylogenies Resolve Neogene Climate and Landscape Evolution in the Cape Floristic Region
title_full Dated Plant Phylogenies Resolve Neogene Climate and Landscape Evolution in the Cape Floristic Region
title_fullStr Dated Plant Phylogenies Resolve Neogene Climate and Landscape Evolution in the Cape Floristic Region
title_full_unstemmed Dated Plant Phylogenies Resolve Neogene Climate and Landscape Evolution in the Cape Floristic Region
title_short Dated Plant Phylogenies Resolve Neogene Climate and Landscape Evolution in the Cape Floristic Region
title_sort dated plant phylogenies resolve neogene climate and landscape evolution in the cape floristic region
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4589284/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26422465
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137847
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