scholarly journals Mitogenome of the Extinct Desert ‘Rat-Kangaroo’ Times the Adaptation to Aridity in Macropodoids

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Westerman ◽  
Stella Loke ◽  
Mun Hua Tan ◽  
Benjamin Kear
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Dna Sequence ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Adaptive Radiation ◽  
Arid Zone ◽  
Museum Specimens ◽  
Ancestral Area ◽  
Complete Mitogenome ◽  
Change Event ◽  
Early Late

Abstract The evolution of Australia’s distinctive marsupial fauna has long been linked to the onset of continent-wide aridity. However, how this profound climate change event affected the diversification of extant lineages is still hotly debated. Here, we assemble a DNA sequence dataset of Macropodoidea — the clade comprising kangaroos and their relatives — that incorporates a complete mitogenome for the Desert ‘rat-kangaroo’, Caloprymnus campestris. This enigmatic species went extinct nearly 90 years ago and is known from a handful of museum specimens. Caloprymnus is significant because it was the only macropodoid restricted to extreme desert environments, and therefore calibrates the group’s specialisation for increasingly xeric conditions. Our robustly supported phylogenies nest Caloprymnus amongst the bettongs Aepyprymnus and Bettongia. Dated ancestral area optimisations further reveal that the Caloprymnus-Bettongia lineage originated in nascent arid zone settings from the later-middle to early-late Miocene, ~12 million years ago (Ma), but subsequently dispersed into mesic habitats during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. This coincides with ancestral divergences amongst kangaroos in disparate woodland-forest and shrubland settings, but predates their adaptive radiation into proliferating grasslands during the late Miocene to Pliocene, after ~7 Ma. We thus demonstrate that protracted changes in both climate and vegetation likely staged the emergence of modern arid zone macropodoids.

New early late Miocene species of Vishnuonyx (Carnivora, Lutrinae) from the hominid locality of Hammerschmiede, Bavaria, Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Kargopoulos ◽  
Alberto Valenciano ◽  
Panagiotis Kampouridis ◽  
Thomas Lechner ◽  
Madelaine Böhme
Keyword(s):  
Late Miocene ◽  
Early Late

Neogastropod molluscs from the Miocene of western Amazonia, with comments on marine to freshwater transitions in molluscs

2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geerat J. Vermeij ◽  
Frank P. Wesselingh
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Water Level ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
South American ◽  
Seasonal Fluctuations ◽  
Early Late ◽  
A New Species ◽  
Freshwater Environments

Two neogastropod species occur in brackish intervals in the Pebas Formation (late Middle to early Late Miocene) of Peru and Colombia in western Amazonia. Purpura woodwardi Roxo, 1924, is assigned to Melongena Schumacher, 1817 (Melongenidae), and ?Nassarius reductus (Nassariidae) is recognized as a new species. These gastropods are among the very few marine invaders in the otherwise freshwater Pebas fauna. The small number of marine to freshwater transitions among South American molluscs contrasts with the situation among South American fishes and southeast Asian molluscs. It may be related to seasonal fluctuations in water level and anoxia in present-day South American freshwater environments, as well as to predation and productivity.

A new argyrolagoid (Mammalia: Marsupialia) from the middle Miocene of Bolivia

1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Villarroel A. Carlos ◽  
Larry G. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Adaptive Radiation ◽  
Middle Miocene ◽  
Northwest Argentina ◽  
The Family ◽  
Size And Structure

A new argyrolagoid marsupial, Hondalagus altiplanensis n. gen., n. sp., from the middle Miocene (Santacrucian–Friasian) age locality of Quebrada Honda in southernmost Bolivia represents the smallest and most specialized member of the family Argyrolagidae known. The lower molars are hypselodont and lack vertical grooves labially and lingually, and M4 is greatly reduced relative to M3. In overall size and structure, H. altiplanensis compares best with Microtragulus catamarcensis (Kraglievich, 1931) from rocks of late Miocene (Huayquerian) age in northwest Argentina. Hondalagus altiplanensis demonstrates that the adaptive radiation of argyrolagoids was much greater than previously envisioned, and that generic differentiation of known taxa occurred no later than early–middle Miocene time in South America.

scholarly journals Cascading implications of a single climate change event for fragile ecosystems on the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau

Ecosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanlong Lu ◽  
Fu Chen ◽  
Jinfeng Zhou ◽  
Alice C. Hughes ◽  
Xiaoqi Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Change Event

scholarly journals Young relicts and old relicts: a novel palaeoendemic vertebrate from the Australian Central Uplands

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 160018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Oliver ◽  
Peter J. McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Late Miocene ◽  
Arid Zone ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Morphological Data ◽  
New Taxon ◽  
Isolated Populations ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Molecular Phylogenetic ◽  
Surrounding Areas ◽  
Close Relatives

Climatic change, and in particular aridification, has played a dominant role in shaping Southern Hemisphere biotas since the mid-Neogene. In Australia, ancient and geologically stable ranges within the vast arid zone have functioned as refugia for populations of mesic taxa extirpated from surrounding areas, yet the extent to which relicts may be linked to major aridification events before or after the Pliocene has not been examined in detail. Here we use molecular phylogenetic and morphological data to show that isolated populations of saxicoline geckos in the genus Oedura from the Australian Central Uplands, formerly confounded as a single taxon, actually comprise two divergent species with contrasting histories of isolation. The recently resurrected Oedura cincta has close relatives occurring elsewhere in the Australian arid biomes with estimated divergence dates concentrated in the early Pliocene. A new taxon (described herein) diverged from all extant Oedura much earlier, well before the end of the Miocene. A review of data for Central Uplands endemic vertebrates shows that for most (including Oedura cincta ), gene flow with other parts of Australia probably occurred until at least the very late Miocene or Pliocene. There are, however, a small number of palaeoendemic taxa—often ecologically specialized forms—that show evidence of having persisted since earlier intensification of aridity in the late Miocene.

Future Climate Change and Arid Zone Geomorphology

2011 ◽  
pp. 599-609
Author(s):  
Richard Washington ◽  
David S. G. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Arid Zone ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change

Physiological and morphological effects of climate change

2019 ◽  
pp. 120-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew E. McKechnie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
High Temperatures ◽  
Arid Zone ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Heat Events

The direct impacts of higher temperatures on birds are manifested over timescales ranging from minutes and hours to years and decades. Over short timescales, acute exposure to high temperatures can lead to hyperthermia or dehydration, which among arid-zone species occasionally causes catastrophic mortality events. Over intermediate timescales of days to weeks, high temperatures can have chronic sub-lethal effects via body mass loss or reduced nestling growth rates, negatively affecting sev eral fitness components. Long-term effects of warming manifested over years to decades involve declining body mass or changes in appendage size. Key directions for future research include elucidating the role of phenotypic plasticity and epigenetic processes in avian adaptation to climate change, examining the role of stress pathways in mediating responses to heat events, and understanding the consequences of higher temperatures for species that traverse hot regions while migrating.

Eco-evolutionary adaptations of ochotonids (Mammalia: Lagomorpha) to islands: new insights into Late Miocene pikas from the Gargano palaeo-archipelago (Italy)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blanca Moncunill-Solé
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Growth Rate ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Ecological Niche ◽  
Rate Increase ◽  
The Body ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Management And Conservation

Abstract Climate change strongly affects the range of ochotonids (Order Lagomorpha), fragmenting their habitats and restricting them to ecological islands. The present paper discusses the adaptations of extinct ochotonids to insular stressors, providing baseline data for the management and conservation of extant species. For this purpose, the body mass (BM) and locomotion of the endemic Prolagus apricenicus and Prolagus imperialis from the Gargano palaeo archipelago (Late Miocene) were assessed. P. apricenicus was a small-sized ochotonid (BM 150–250 g) and P. imperialis was probably the largest Prolagus that ever lived (BM 500–750 g). The eco-evolutionary BM dynamics suggest a targeted ecological niche for P. apricenicus, whereas the BM of P. imperialis rose abruptly as a result of growth-rate increase. In both species, the locomotion was stable and less cursorial, with leaping skills, resembling extant rocky ochotonids. Convergent eco-evolutionary patterns are observed in extinct insular ochotonids, concerning an increase of BM (giants), more efficient chewing, less cursorial and more stable locomotion, leaping skills, as well as a slower life history (longer lifespan). Such adaptations are triggered by the specific selective pressures of insular regimes. The present results point to the long-lasting insular Prolagus species as reference taxa for addressing the management of extant rocky ochotonids.

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