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Digest: The contribution of historical climate events in shaping the modern latitudinal diversity gradient of ancient reptiles
Author(s) -
Lacroix Rachel
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/evo.14069
Subject(s) - biology , biodiversity , extinction (optical mineralogy) , latitude , diversity (politics) , taxon , ecology , global warming , climate change , paleontology , geography , geodesy , sociology , anthropology
It is recognized that biodiversity changes across the planet latitudinally; however, the timing of and reasons for diversity loss at higher latitudes are not well understood. Meseguer and Condamine investigate phylogenies and fossil evidence of reptilian species and determine that global warming and cooling events allowed asymmetric extinction and dispersion across latitudes, suggesting a hypothesis where climate profoundly shapes the latitudinal diversity gradient in certain taxa.