A model for paleobiogeography of South American cricetine rodents

Paleobiology ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry G. Marshall

A model for the paleobiogeographic history of South American cricetine rodents is proposed based on new and/or recently published fossil, geological, paleobotanical and radioisotope data. Cricetine rodents of the tribe Sigmodontini evolved in North America before 7.0 Myr BP. They got to South America by waif dispersal across the Bolivar Trough marine barrier from Central America during a world wide drop in sea level (the “Messinian Low”) between 7.0 and 5.0 Myr BP. The basal stock was probably a sylvan (forest) form, from which evolved pastoral (grazing) forms in the savanna-grassland area of Venezuela, Colombia and the Guianas. The pastoral forms in the northern savanna-grassland area were restricted there until about 3.5 Myr BP. At that time there occurred the first glaciation in South America and consonant with glacial advance was a retraction of forest habitats and an expansion of savanna-grassland habitats. At that time the pastoral forms were able to disperse southward through a savanna-grassland corridor along the eastern foothills of the Andes and spread throughout the previously disjunct savanna-grasslands of Bolivia and Argentina. Cricetines are first recorded as fossil in the Monte Hermoso Fm. of Argentina which is about 3.5 Myr BP in age. The Panamanian land bridge came into existence about 3.0 Myr BP as indicated by the beginning of a major interchange of terrestrial faunas between the Americas, which was well underway by 2.7 Myr BP.

Author(s):  
Peter L. Meserve

South America forms the greater part of the Neotropical faunal realm, which extends northward through Central America to tropical southern Mexico. Although making up only 12% of the world’s land area, South America is the richest continent for virtually all organismal groups, including vertebrates. For example, of the known 23,250 species of fish (Eschmeyer, 1998), 41% or 9,530 species are freshwater, and of these, more than 2,800 species (29%) are in South America (Moyle and Cech, 2000). A comparable level of diversity exists for amphibians and birds. Of Earth’s 5,900 species of amphibians, at least 1,749 or 30% occur in South America (Duellman, 1999a, 1999b; Köhler et al., 2005; www.amphibiaweb.org). More than 3,200 (or nearly 32%) of Earth’s 9,900 species of birds occur in South America (Sibley and Monroe, 1990). For reptiles and mammals, diversity is only slightly lower; at least 1,560 (19%) of 8,240 reptile species (Uetz and Etzold, 1996; www.reptiledatabase. org), and 1,037 (19%) of 5,416 mammal species (Nowak, 1999; Wilson and Reeder, 2005) are found in South America. Four major geological events or features are important to understanding South America’s contemporary zoogeography. The first was the breakup of Pangea, and then of Gondwana. South America and Africa remained close for an extended period of the Mesozoic, and thus share important similarities in their faunas, including groups not fully evolved at the time of separation. South America also maintained connections to other Gondwanan continents, directly with Antarctica, indirectly with Australia, until the early Cenozoic. The second major feature was South America’s long period of isolation in the Cenozoic, particularly from North America pending establishment of the late Pliocene land bridge after 3 Ma (million years before present). The latter resulted in “The Great American Interchange” (Webb, 1976; Marshall et al., 1982), which had profound consequences for the fauna. The third major feature of South America has been the Andes, which, in addition to modifying climate, have been a center of speciation, a dispersal route, and a barrier. The cordillera has had an overriding effect on distributions and histories of both past and current biotas on the continent.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Scott A. Reynhout ◽  
Michael R. Kaplan ◽  
Esteban A. Sagredo ◽  
Juan Carlos Aravena ◽  
Rodrigo L. Soteres ◽  
...  

Abstract In the Cordillera Darwin, southernmost South America, we used 10Be and 14C dating, dendrochronology, and historical observations to reconstruct the glacial history of the Dalla Vedova valley from deglacial time to the present. After deglacial recession into northeastern Darwin and Dalla Vedova, by ~16 ka, evidence indicates a glacial advance at ~13 ka coeval with the Antarctic Cold Reversal. The next robustly dated glacial expansion occurred at 870 ± 60 calendar yr ago (approximately AD 1150), followed by less-extensive dendrochronologically constrained advances from shortly before AD 1836 to the mid-twentieth century. Our record is consistent with most studies within the Cordillera Darwin that show that the Holocene glacial maximum occurred during the last millennium. This pattern contrasts with the extensive early- and mid-Holocene glacier expansions farther north in Patagonia; furthermore, an advance at 870 ± 60 yr ago may suggest out-of-phase glacial advances occurred within the Cordillera Darwin relative to Patagonia. We speculate that a southward shift of westerlies and associated climate regimes toward the southernmost tip of the continent, about 900–800 yr ago, provides a mechanism by which some glaciers advanced in the Cordillera Darwin during what is generally considered a warm and dry period to the north in Patagonia.


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghillean T. Prance ◽  
Vanessa Plana

The American Proteaceae are outliers from the main centres of diversity of the family in Australia and South Africa. There are about 83 species in eight genera which all belong to the monophyletic subfamily Grevilleoideae. Three genera, Embothrium, Oreocallis and Lomatia, are placed in the tribe Embothrieae (sensu Johnson and Briggs), four Euplassa, Gevuina, Panopsis and Roupala in the Macadamieae and the single genus Orites in the Oriteae. There are five genera endemic to America and three also have species in Australia and New Guinea (Gevuina, Lomatia and Orites). The Proteaceae appear to have arrived in South America via two routes. The larger genera Euplassa, Panopsis and Roupala, which are all endemic to America and have a general distribution in northern South America and south-eastern Brazil, are derived from Gondwanaland before it separated from South America. The remaining genera are distributed either in temperate South America or in the high Andes and appear to have arrived more recently via the Australia–Antarctica–South American connection. Three of these genera have species in both regions. The centres of species diversity of Euplassa, Panopsis and Roupala fall outside hypothesised forest refugia, indicating that they are not true rainforest species but species of seasonal habitats like those achieved at higher altitudes where they are commonly found. Two genera,Panopsis and Roupala, have reached Central America after the central American land bridge was formed six million years ago. The exact relationship to genera on other continents is still unclear and there is a need for a cladistic biogeographic analysis of the group based on both morphological and molecular data.


Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4329 (3) ◽  
pp. 256
Author(s):  
FRANCISCO PROVENZANO R. ◽  
NADIA MILANI ◽  
CARLOS ARDILA R.

As a part of an assessment of loricariid catfishes inhabiting the Andes of Colombia, specimens belonging to an interesting new species were identified. The new species is described herein, and it is tentatively included in the genus Cordylancistrus. The new species can be easily distinguished among its congeners by the presence of a unique diagnostic character: a fleshy keel or excrescence, black or dark brown, over the posterior tip of supraoccipital. Specimens of the new species were captured in rivers of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Sierra de Perijá that drain to the Magdalena River Basin and Caribbean Sea. The occurrence of one species of Cordylancistrus in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta could have interesting biogeographic implications for hypotheses related to the geological history of northwestern corner of South America or to the dispersal or vicariance models used to explain biogeographical patterns of related species in Colombia. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4568 (2) ◽  
pp. 394
Author(s):  
DIEGO DUTRA SILVEIRA ◽  
ALINE BARCELLOS ◽  
ALEXANDER KNYSHOV

Hoplonannus McAtee & Maloch, 1925 comprises three species described from Central America. Females of all these species are known only from brachypterous specimens. This paper describes the first South American species of the genus, Hoplonannus australis sp. nov. The new species differs from its congeners, in females, by the submacroptery, presence of ocelli and a basal bulge in the seventh sternite; in males, it differs by the presence of a process in the eighth tergite and the right paramere bifurcate apically, with branches subparallel. These traits entail a new diagnosis for the genus. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4891 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-112
Author(s):  
FRANK E. KURCZEWSKI ◽  
RICK C. WEST ◽  
CECILIA WAICHERT ◽  
KELLY C. KISSANE ◽  
DARRELL UBICK ◽  
...  

New and unusual host records for 133 species and subspecies of Pompilidae predominantly from the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America are presented in modified taxonomic order. First-time species host records are given for Calopompilus Ashmead, Pepsis Fabricius, Hemipepsis Dahlbom, Priocnessus Banks, Entypus Dahlbom, Pompilocalus Roig-Alsina, Sphictostethus Kohl, Auplopus Spinola, Ageniella Banks, Eragenia Banks, Aporus Spinola, Poecilopompilus Ashmead, Tachypompilus Ashmead, Anoplius Dufour, Priochilus (Fabricius) and Notocyphus Smith. New host spider families are introduced for Calopompilus, Pepsis, Hemipepsis, Priocnessus, Entypus, Cryptocheilus Panzer, Priocnemis Schiødte, Auplopus, Ageniella, Eragenia, Aporus, Tachypompilus, Anoplius, Priochilus and Notocyphus. Eight host spider families are reported from the Western Hemisphere for the first time: Halonoproctidae (Notocyphus dorsalis dorsalis Cresson); Dipluridae (Pepsis pretiosa Dahlbom, P. montezuma Smith, P. infuscate Spinola, P. atripennis Fabricius, P. martini Vardy, Priocnessus vancei Waichert and Pitts); Nemesiidae (Pepsis pallidolimbata Lucas, P. viridis Lepeletier, P. spp., Pompilocalus hirticeps (Guérin), Sphictostethus gravesii (Haliday), S. striatulus Roig-Alsina, Priocnemis oregona Banks); Barychelidae (Eragenia sp.); Paratropididae (Pepsis stella Montet); Trechaleidae (Hemipepsis toussainti (Banks), Entypus unifasciatus cressoni (Banks), Tachypompilus ferrugineus (Say), Tachypompilus unicolor cerinus Evans, Priochilus gloriosum (Cresson); Desidae (Ageniella accepta (Cresson), Sphictostethus isodontus Roig-Alsina) and Selenopidae (Priochilus scrupulum (Fox), Tachypompilus erubescens (Taschenberg) or xanthopterus (Rohwer)). The first known host records for the rare South American pompilid genera Chirodamus (Lycosidae: Lycosa sp.) and Herbstellus (Nemesiidae: Diplothelopsis cf bonariensis Mello-Leitão) are presented. 


2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia T. Ting ◽  
Benjamin Barankin

Background: Myiasis is a cutaneous infestation with larvae of Diptera, the two-winged arthropod order. Eggs and/or larvae are transmitted directly from the environment or via arthropod vectors. Larvae are able to burrow into the dermis of intact skin or external body orifices. Three clinical variants of myiasis are furuncular, migratory (creeping), and infestation of wounds. Methods: A 35-year-old male presented with a 1-month history of worsening furuncles on the left knee and posterior thigh following his return from Panama, South America. Clinical examination revealed tender 6 cm and 2 cm erythematous to violaceous furuncles with surrounding desquamation and central puncta draining serosanguinous fluid. Five-millimeter punch biopsies and tissue swabs were performed. Results: All larvae were of the Dermatobia hominis species. The patient was empirically treated with cephalexin and ciprofloxacin for secondary bacterial cellulitis. Tissue swabs later cultured group B streptococcus. A tetanus booster was recommended. Conclusion: This case report describes a relatively rare cutaneous infestation with D. hominis, a Central and South American endemic larva of the human botfly. Increasing trends toward immigration and global travel to tropical and subtropic areas will likely increase the frequency of encounters with such parasitic cutaneous infestations in North American outpatient dermatology clinics.


Lankesteriana ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Ossenbach ◽  
Rudolf Jenny

This study represents the first part of a series dedicated to the work of Rudolf Schlechter on the orchid flora of South America. The historical background of Schlechter’s botanical activity is outlined, and salient aspects of his biography, as well as his main scientific relationships, in particular with Oakes Ames, and the origins of his interest in tropical America are discussed. We also present a complete bibliography relative to Schlechter’s production on the orchid floras of South American countries, with his network of orchid collectors, growers and other purveyors, and checklists of all the new taxa that he described from each individual country.   Key words: bibliography, biography, history of botany, Orchidaceae, South America


eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paloma Diaz-Maroto ◽  
Alba Rey-Iglesia ◽  
Isabel Cartajena ◽  
Lautaro Núñez ◽  
Michael V Westbury ◽  
...  

The study of South American camelids and their domestication is a highly debated topic in zooarchaeology. Identifying the domestic species (alpaca and llama) in archaeological sites based solely on morphological data is challenging due to their similarity with respect to their wild ancestors. Using genetic methods also presents challenges due to the hybridization history of the domestic species, which are thought to have extensively hybridized following the Spanish conquest of South America that resulted in camelids slaughtered en masse. In this study, we generated mitochondrial genomes for 61 ancient South American camelids dated between 3,500 and 2,400 years before the present (Early Formative period) from two archaeological sites in Northern Chile (Tulán-54 and Tulán-85), as well as 66 modern camelid mitogenomes and 815 modern mitochondrial control region sequences from across South America. In addition, we performed osteometric analyses to differentiate big and small body size camelids. A comparative analysis of these data suggests that a substantial proportion of the ancient vicuña genetic variation has been lost since the Early Formative period, as it is not present in modern specimens. Moreover, we propose a domestication hypothesis that includes an ancient guanaco population that no longer exists. Finally, we find evidence that interbreeding practices were widespread during the domestication process by the early camelid herders in the Atacama during the Early Formative period and predating the Spanish conquest.


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