scholarly journals Unraveling the diversification history of grasshoppers belonging to the “Trimerotropis pallidipennis”(Oedipodinae: Acrididae) species group: a hotspot of biodiversity in the Central Andes

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noelia Verónica Guzmán ◽  
Silvia Mónica Pietrokovsky ◽  
Maria Marta Cigliano ◽  
Viviana Andrea Confalonieri
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Central Andes ◽  
Species Group ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Andes Mountains ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Altitudinal Distribution ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations ◽  
Genetic Lineages ◽  
History Of

The Andean Mountain range has been recognized as one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world. The proposed mechanisms for such species diversification, among others, are due to the elevation processes occurring during the Miocene and the intensive glacial action during the Pleistocene. In this study we investigated the diversification history of the grasshopperTrimerotropis pallidipennisspecies complex which shows a particularly wide latitudinal and altitudinal distribution range across the northern, central and southern Andes in South America. Many genetic lineages of this complex have been so far discovered, making it an excellent model to investigate the role of the central Andes Mountains together with climatic fluctuations as drivers of speciation. Phylogenetics, biogeographic and molecular clock analyses using a multi-locus dataset revealed that in Peru there are at least two, and possibly four genetic lineages. Two different stocks originated from a common ancestor from North/Central America—would have dispersed toward southern latitudes favored by the closure of the Panama Isthmus giving rise to two lineages, the coastal and mountain lineages, which still coexist in Peru (i.e.,T. pallidipennisandT. andeana). Subsequent vicariant and dispersal events continued the differentiation process, giving rise to three to six genetic lineages (i.e., clades) detected in this study, which were geographically restricted to locations dispersed over the central Andes Mountains in South America. Our results provide another interesting example of “island diversification” motored by the topography plus unstable climatic conditions during the Pleistocene, pointing out the presence of a hotspot of diversification in the Andean region of Peru.

scholarly journals Systematics of the oil bee genus Lanthanomelissa and its implications to the biogeography of southern grasslands

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taís M. A. Ribeiro ◽  
Aline C. Martins ◽  
Daniel P. Silva ◽  
Antonio J. C. Aguiar
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Last Interglacial ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
Bioclimatic Variables ◽  
Climatic Scenarios ◽  
History Of ◽  
Taxonomic Changes ◽  
Climate Cooling ◽  
Distributional Shifts

AbstractLanthanomelissa is a controversial taxonomic group of bees that was treated as subgenus of Chalepogenus or an independent genus. All of its species are endemic to the south-eastern grasslands of South America, an endangered and still poorly known environment. We aimed to understand the origin of this group of bees in time and space as well as the influence of Quaternary climatic fluctuations on its current distribution and possible link to the history of the Southern Grasslands. We inferred phylogenetic relationships of Lanthanomelissa species using 37 terminals and 3430 nucleotides of three mitochondrial and two nuclear markers and estimated divergence times and ancestral geographic range. We performed an ensemble with the algorithms SVM, Maxent, and Random Forest in a dataset of 192 georeferenced occurrence points using 19 WorldClim bioclimatic variables to analyse species distribution during the current and two past climatic scenarios (LIG, ∼120 kya and LGM, ∼21 kya). The results support the monophyly of the genus and taxonomic changes including the species Lanthanomelissa parva n. comb. on Lanthanomelissa, and the treatment of the goeldianus group of Chalepogenus as the genus Lanthanella. The genus originated at the Oligocene-Miocene border in the Chacoan-Pampean region, and the glacial-interglacial models indicated expansion in Last Glacial Maximum and retraction in Last Interglacial. Expansion and retraction of Lanthanomelissa distribution in the last glacial-interglacial indicated grasslands distributional shifts during periods of climate cooling and warming. The diversification of Lanthanomelissa supported the estimated expansion of southern grasslands in South America concurrently with the origin of Cerrado during the late Miocene. Their origin was approximately synchronized with their exclusive floral host, Sisyrinchium (Iridaceae).

scholarly journals Esclarecimiento taxonómico de Nymphaea gracilis Zucc., planta acuática endémica de México

2017 ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Alejandro Novelo-R.
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Leaf Surface ◽  
Leaf Shape ◽  
Lower Leaf Surface ◽  
Altitudinal Distribution ◽  
Type Specimens ◽  
Taxonomic History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mexican Species ◽  
Surface Angle

A review of the taxonomic history of Nymphaea ampla (Salisb.) DC. is presented, since its description by Salisbury in 1805 up to the present, including the mention of various names which have been incorrectly referred to this taxon as synonyms, most notably Nymphaea gracilis Zucc. N. gracilis is easily distinguished from N. ampla, the only other Mexican species with which it might be confused, by several-morphological and field characters, namely: the margin of the leaf, shape of the rhizome, venation of the lower leaf surface, angle of aperture of the sepals, and altitudinal distribution . The results of this research lead us to the conclusion that N. ampla var. speciose (Mart. & Zucc.) Casp . is restricted at present to the Antilles and South America. The confusion created by Conard's work (1905) widening the range of this variety to temperate Mexico, by the inclusion of N. gracilis and N. undulata under this variety, has been clarified. Comparison of descriptions and type specimens of various Nymphaeas, which were involved in the problem, such as N. gracilis Zucc., N. flavo-virens Lehm. , N. undulate Lehm. , and N. tussilagifolia Lehm., indicates that all of them belong to the same species. Applying the rule of priority, the correct name which should be used for this plant is N. gracilis Zucc.

scholarly journals Molecular phylogenetics and evolutionary history of the endemic land snail genus Everettia in northern Borneo

PeerJ ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. e9416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thor-Seng Liew ◽  
Mohammad Effendi Marzuki ◽  
Menno Schilthuizen ◽  
Yansen Chen ◽  
Jaap J. Vermeulen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Molecular Phylogenetics ◽  
Divergence Time ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Land Snail ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations ◽  
Species Diversification ◽  
History Of

Borneo has gone through dramatic changes in geology and topography from the early Eocene until the early Pliocene and experienced climatic cycling during the Pleistocene. However, how these changes have shaped the present-day patterns of high diversity and complex distribution are still poorly understood. In this study, we use integrative approaches by estimating phylogenetic relationships, divergence time, and current and past niche suitability for the Bornean endemic land snail genus Everettia to provide additional insight into the evolutionary history of this genus in northern Borneo in the light of the geological vicariance events and climatic fluctuations in the Pleistocene. Our results show that northern Borneo Everettia species belong to two deeply divergent lineages: one contains the species that inhabit high elevation at the central mountain range, while the other contains lowland species. Species diversification in these lineages has taken place before the Pliocene. Climate changes during the Pleistocene did not play a significant role in species diversification but could have shaped contemporary species distribution patterns. Our results also show that the species-rich highland habitats have acted as interglacial refugia for highland species. This study of a relatively sedentary invertebrate supports and enhances the growing understanding of the evolutionary history of Borneo. Species diversification in Everettia is caused by geological vicariance events between the early Miocene and the Pliocene, and the distribution patterns were subsequently determined by climatic fluctuations in the Pleistocene.

Are the Central Andes Mountains a Warming Hot Spot?

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 3589-3608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandria M. Russell ◽  
Anand Gnanadesikan ◽  
Benjamin Zaitchik
Keyword(s):  
Climate Models ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Central Andes ◽  
Andes Mountains ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Tropical Andes ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Climate Model Simulations

Abstract Global climate model simulations project that the tropical Andes Mountains of South America, which are particularly vulnerable to climate change because of a reliance on snow and glacial melt for freshwater resources, will experience enhanced warming in the near future, with both higher rates of warming at higher elevations within the mountain range itself and localized enhancement of warming exceeding surrounding areas of the globe. Yet recent surface temperature changes in the tropical Andes do not show evidence for either elevation-dependent warming or regional enhancement of warming on average. However, it remains a possibility that the expected warming trends in this region have begun to manifest in other ways (e.g., in the free atmosphere or at intermediate mountain elevations). This paper proposes evidence from several reanalysis products that there has indeed been a regional enhancement of midtropospheric warming around the central Andes over the past few decades that makes this region stand out as a hot spot within the broader pantropics. This trend is generally not reproduced by historical AMIP climate model simulations, which suggests that the mechanisms through which the atmosphere is warming over the central Andes are not adequately captured by climate models. Possible explanations for localized enhancement of warming in this region are considered. On the other hand, reanalysis products do not consistently exhibit enhanced warming at intermediate mountain elevations in the central Andes as evidenced by the generally moderate rates of change in the freezing-level height, except perhaps in the highest-resolution reanalysis product.

scholarly journals Amphibia, Anura, Strabomantidae, Geobatrachus walkeri (Ruthven, 1915): altitudinal extension and new habitat, Colombia

Check List ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 454
Author(s):  
Luis Alberto Rueda-Solano ◽  
Fernando Vargas-Salinas
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Altitudinal Distribution ◽  
The Caribbean

In September 2008 we registered the frog Geobatrachus walkeri at ~ 3500 m elevation in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, an isolated mountain range in the Caribbean Colombian, South America. Our record expands the knowledge of the altitudinal distribution of this species on 700 m and constitutes the first observation in páramo habitat.

Charles Waterton (1782–1865) and wourali

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Padfield
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
British Guiana ◽  
History Of

Charles Waterton was the eccentric “Lord of Walton Hall” near Wakefield in Yorkshire. His Wanderings in South America was first published in 1826; translated into French, German and Spanish, it was a best seller. He brought back wourali used by the Macoushi natives of British Guiana (now Guyana) for killing prey; there is a piece of it in the Wakefield Museum. This paper traces the history of wourali which paralyses its victims; its attempted medical use for rabies and tetanus and, though different from curare, its belated use in modern anaesthesia.

“What Freedom?”

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-331
Author(s):  
John Owen Havard
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Free Condition ◽  
Narrative Design ◽  
Economic Liberalism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
John Owen

John Owen Havard, “‘What Freedom?’: Frankenstein, Anti-Occidentalism, and English Liberty” (pp. 305–331) “If he were vanquished,” Victor Frankenstein states of his monstrous creation in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), “I should be a free man.” But he goes on: “Alas! what freedom? such as the peasant enjoys when his family have been massacred before his eyes, his cottage burnt, his lands laid waste, and he is turned adrift, homeless, pennyless, and alone, but free.” Victor’s circumstances approximate the deracinated subject of an emergent economic liberalism, while looking to other destitute and shipwrecked heroes. Yet the ironic “freedom” described here carries an added charge, which Victor underscores when he concludes this account of his ravaged condition: “Such would be my liberty.” This essay revisits the geographic plotting of Frankenstein: the digression to the East in the nested “harem” episode, the voyage to England, the neglected episode of Victor’s imprisonment in Ireland, and the creature’s desire to live in South America. Locating Victor’s concluding appeal to his “free” condition within the novel’s expansive geography amplifies the political stakes of his downfall, calling attention to not only his own suffering but the wider trail of destruction left in his wake. Where existing critical accounts have emphasized the French Revolution and its violent aftermath, this obscures the novel’s pointed critique of a deep and tangled history of English liberty and its destructive legacies. Reexamining the novel’s geography in tandem with its use of form similarly allows us to rethink the overarching narrative design of Frankenstein, in ways that disrupt, if not more radically dislocate, existing rigid ways of thinking about the novel.

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