Laurasian migration explains Gondwanan disjunctions: evidence from Malpighiaceae.

ABSTRACT: Explanations for biogeographic disjunctions involving South America and Africa typically invoke vicariance of western Gondwanan biotas or long distance dispersal. These hypotheses are problematical because many groups originated and diversified well after the last known connection between Africa and South America (approximately 105 million years ago), and it is unlikely that "sweepstakes" dispersal accounts for many of these disjunctions. Phylogenetic analyses of the angiosperm clade Malpighiaceae, combined with fossil evidence and molecular divergence-time estimates, suggest an alternative hypothesis to account for such distributions. We propose that Malpighiaceae originated in northern South America, and that members of several clades repeatedly migrated into North America and subsequent

SUBMITTER: Davis CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC124489 | biostudies-literature | 2002 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature