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Bones, Clones, and Biomes: The History and Geography of Recent Neotropical Mammals
Author(s): Bruce D. Patterson (Editor), Leonora P. Costa
- Publisher: UNIV OF CHICAGO PR
- Publication Date: 5 Jun. 2012
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 368 pages
- ISBN-10: 0226649199
- ISBN-13: 9780226649191
Book Description
As explorers and scientists have known for decades, the Neotropics harbor a fantastic array of our planet’s mammalian diversity, from capybaras and capuchins to maned wolves and mouse opossums to sloths and sakis. This biological bounty can be attributed partly to the striking diversity of Neotropical landscapes and climates and partly to a series of continental connections that permitted intermittent faunal exchanges with Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and North America. Thus, to comprehend the development of modern Neotropical mammal faunas requires not only mastery of the Neotropics’ substantial diversity, but also knowledge of mammalian lineages and landscapes dating back to the Mesozoic.
Bones, Clones, and Biomes offers just that—an exploration of the development and relationships of the modern mammal fauna through a series of studies that encompass the last 100 million years and both Central and South America. This work serves as a complement to more taxonomically driven works, providing for readers the long geologic and biogeographic contexts that undergird the abundance and diversity of Neotropical mammals. Rather than documenting diversity or distribution, this collection traverses the patterns that the distributions and relationships across mammal species convey, bringing together for the first time geology, paleobiology, systematics, mammalogy, and biogeography. Of critical importance is the book’s utility for current conservation and management programs, part of a rapidly rising conservation paleobiology initiative.
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Editors Patterson and Costa fill a huge gap in the literature of Neotropical mammals with this up-to-date volume. . . . The book masterfully provides a synthesis of the evolutionary history and biogeographic patterns of recent mammals along with comprehensive coverage of past faunas. This well-executed combination of paleontology and neontology makes
Bones, Clones, and Biomes a unique and timely contribution to historical biogeography. . . . No biologist interested in organismal evolution in the New World should skip this volume, and it is a must-read for mammalogists."-- "Journal of Mammalogy""I strongly recommend
Bones, Clones, and Biomes to anyone interested in the recent or fossil mammals of the Neotropics, as well as to readers with a broader interest in the evolutionary history of mammalian faunas. You will be rewarded with a deeper understanding and appreciation of this fascinating fauna."-- "Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology""Scientists have long recognized the value of South America as a grand evolutionary experiment. In this geologically and climatically turbulent region, long episodes of isolation from the rest of the world's continents generated deeply divergent groups of endemic mammals, while plate tectonics dictated the sporadic infusion of new groups, generating new waves of diversification, adding new layers to the sequential accumulation of recent Neotropical mammal richness. In this compilation, the editors have brought paleontologists, geologists, molecular systematists, and biogeographers together to provide a much needed update on the unfolding story of recent Neotropical mammal diversity and diversification. This volume will be a welcomed addition to the libraries of a new generation of scientists seeking to unravel further the history of Neotropical mammal evolution in this fascinating and important region."--Brett R. Riddle, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
"The new world tropics contain about a third of the known diversity of mammals, and this important work represents a modern synthesis of both paleontological and recent knowledge about the mammals of the region to better understand the current patterns of diversification and distribution. Our current understanding of plate tectonics, phylogenetic systematics, and huge advances in understanding the chronology of fossil mammal finds in South America argues that a synthesis such as that attempted here is timely."--Don E. Wilson, Smithsonian Institution
"This fascinating compilation provides a sorely needed modern synthesis of the impact of geology, history, evolution, and ecology on the distribution and biogeography of Neotropical mammals. Covering mammal evolutionary history and dispersal since its early origins, and spanning current geographical distribution and diversity from the West Indies and Central America to Amazonia, the Andes, and Patagonia, this remarkably informative volume will force readers to revise everything they thought they knew about Neotropical mammals."--Peter Meserve, Northern Illinois University
"Excellent maps, charts, and tables support clearly written text. Recommended."--E. Delson, CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College "Choice"
"This excellent volume should . . . generate wide interest as an example of how to integrate science research across disciplines ranging from molecular genetics to paleontology as a means of exploring the dynamic history of a region. As both a synthesis of our current understanding and a user-friendly reference work (both taxonomic and subject indices are included),
Bones, Clones, and Biomes will find broad use."--Joseph A. Cook "BioScience"
About the Author
Bruce D. Patterson is the MacArthur Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Leonora P. Costa is associate professor in the Departamento de Ciências Biológicas at Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vitória, Brazil.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Bones, Clones, and Biomes
The History and Geography of Recent Neotropical Mammals
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
Copyright © 2012 The University of Chicago
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-64919-1
Contents
1 Introduction to the History and Geography of Neotropical Mammals Bruce D. Patterson and Leonora P. Costa................................................................................................................12 Punctuated Isolation: The Making and Mixing of South America's Mammals Darin A. Croft...................................................................................................................................93 Origins, Radiations, and Distribution of South American Mammals: From Greenhouse to Icehouse Worlds Francisco J. Goin, Javier N. Gelfo, Laura Chornogubsky, Michael O. Woodburne, and Thomas Martin.....................204 Cenozoic Andean Faunas: Shedding New Light on South American Mammal Evolution, Biogeography, Environments, and Tectonics John J. Flynn, Reynaldo Charrier, Darin A. Croft, and Andre R. Wyss............................515 On the Evolution of Large Size in Mammalian Herbivores of Cenozoic Faunas of Southern South America Sergio F. Vizcaíno, Guillermo H. Cassini, Néstor Toledo, and M. Susana Bargo..............................766 Evolution of the South American Carnivores (Mammalia, Carnivora): A Paleontological Perspective Francisco J. Prevosti and Leopoldo H. Soibelzon.........................................................................1027 A Molecular View on the Evolutionary History and Biogeography of Neotropical Carnivores (Mammalia, Carnivora) Eduardo Eizirik...........................................................................................1238 Hierarchical Organization of Neotropical Mammal Diversity and Its Historical Basis Sergio Solari, Paúl M. Velazco, and Bruce D. Patterson..........................................................................1459 West Indian Mammals: The Old, the New, and the Recently Extinct Liliana M. Dávalos and Samuel T. Turvey............................................................................................................15710 Biogeography of Central American Mammals: Patterns and Processes Ana Laura Almendra and Duke S. Rogers.................................................................................................................20311 Biogeography of Mammals from the Guianas of South America Burton K. Lim................................................................................................................................................23012 Speciation in Amazonia: Patterns and Predictions of a Network of Hypotheses Cibele R. Bonvicino and Marcelo Weksler....................................................................................................25913 Historical Fragmentation Shaping Vertebrate Diversification in the Atlantic Forest Biodiversity Hotspot Leonora P. Costa and Yuri L. R. Leite..........................................................................28314 Mammals of the Cerrado and Caatinga: Distribution Patterns of the Tropical Open Biomes of Central South America Ana Paula Carmignotto, Mario de Vivo, and Alfredo Langguth.............................................30715 The Role of the Andes in the Diversification and Biogeography of Neotropical Mammals Bruce D. Patterson, Sergio Solari, and Paúl M. Velazco.......................................................................35116 Mammalian Biogeography of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego Enrique P. Lessa, Guillermo D'Elía, and Ulyses F. J. Pardiñas.......................................................................................379CONTRIBUTORS...............................................................................................................................................................................................................399TAXONOMIC INDEX............................................................................................................................................................................................................403SUBJECT INDEX..............................................................................................................................................................................................................413
Chapter One
Introduction to the History and Geography of Neotropical Mammals
Bruce D. Patterson and Leonora P. Costa
The Neotropics are home to more than 1500 species of living mammals, almost 30% of all extant species. These charismatic organisms include remarkable animals found nowhere else on earth: armadillos and anteaters, capybaras and capuchins, maned wolves and mouse opossums, sloths and sakis. Endemic groups include the platyrrhine monkeys (136 species), the phyllostomid bats (58 genera and 192 species, exploiting almost every dietary strategy used by bats worldwide), the caviomorph rodents (12 families and 288 species of guinea-pig relatives), and the sigmodontines (a subfamily of mice that explosively radiated into at least 88 genera and 399 species over the past 6–8 million years). Local diversity of mammals in the Neotropics is so great that biologists can capture representatives of 5–6 families and 30–35 species of bats in a single night by using mist nets. Individual reserves in the Neotropics can support more than 220 species of mammals, twice the number known from the eastern third of North America!
This biological bounty can be partly attributed to the striking diversity of Neotropical landscapes and biomes. The region supports lush rainforests (both temperate and tropical), parched deserts, sprawling savannas, thorny scrublands, alpine steppes, and towering peaks. A plethora of climatic and edaphic conditions accompany and shape this biotic diversity. Another agency fostering its endemism has been South America's isolation as an island continent for much of the last 65 million years (Ma). However, unlike its Gondwana neighbor Australia, South America's history of isolation has been interrupted by a succession of continental connections that permitted intermittent faunal exchanges with Africa, Antarctica and Australia, and North America at different times. These episodes of exchange, each involving distinctive sets of immigrants, appear as discrete "strata" in South America's extensive fossil record. To comprehend the development of modern Neotropical mammal faunas requires not only mastery of the Neotropics' substantial mammalian diversity, but also knowledge of lineages and landscapes stretching back to the Mesozoic. A synthesis of this information requires expertise that spans the disciplines of geology, paleontology, physical geography, systematics, and biogeography. Few modern workers claim this breadth.
As a result, the leading works on the evolution and biogeography of Neotropical mammals, books like Mammals on Southern Continents, Splendid Isolation, and the Great American Biotic Interchange (Keast, Erk, and Glass 1972; Simpson 1980; Stehli and Webb 1985) are grossly outdated. Although there are now excellent field guides (Emmons and Feer 1997; Reid 1997) and some regional treatises on the fauna (Eisenberg and Redford 1989, 1999; Redford and Eisenberg 1992), no recent work has treated the origins, interrelationships, and biogeography of living Neotropical mammals. Even the taxonomic foundations for this undertaking lack refinement. Angel Cabrera's classic Catálogo (Cabrera 1958, 1961) is a half-century old, and the three-volume...
